Hey there! I apologize profusely for the unacceptable gap between posts. I have plenty of reasons (excuses?) about why it happened, including busy times at work, multiple winter storms here, and some personal stuff…but none of that matters. I’ll do better, and I’ll schedule some posts out in advance for this week so it doesn’t happen again.
Can we talk about the last couple of episodes of The Book of Boba Fett? I’ve actually heard some complaints online about the direction the series has taken for this pair of episodes, and that is just baffling to me. It’s like complaining about a unicorn or a pot of gold. I wish her mane was more sparkly! Hey, these gold coins aren’t shiny enough! I mean…are you kidding me?!? The mere existence of a show about Boba Fett is enough for me. I’m not going to complain about a detour from the main storyline.
ESPECIALLY considering exactly where that detour has taken us. Which I won’t discuss in detail, in case people aren’t caught up. But in a word: wow. Very rarely, exceptional TV shows can provide “off the couch” moments for me, where I find myself literally and physically lifting myself up off the couch to the proverbial edge of my seat as a spectacular moment unfolds. If you get one or two per season, a typical show is doing a great job.
At this point in The Book of Boba Fett, I have lost count of how many there have been. Maybe half a dozen? I may have to go back, re-watch the season after it concludes, and write something just about that. The show isn’t perfect. There have been some curious choices about exactly how to tell this story. But as a method of delivering an authentic, interesting, and thrilling Star Wars experience? Top marks from me.
There have also been some people that discuss certain moments as “fan service” with a negative connotation. I’m not sure how this trend of criticism even started. To me, that would refer to an inclusion that was completely gratuitous, and held no true meaning or purpose within a show. And that is absolutely, unequivocally NOT the case with certain things that happened recently, especially in episode six. With Dave Filoni helming the episode, and Jon Favreau writing it, I have complete faith that not a single moment was included for anything other than the bigger picture of telling this story.
Which brings us to the final point of semantics. The jokes and memes about (mild spoiler alert) the last couple of episodes belonging more to a different show than the actual one we are watching are factually accurate. I don’t care. Not even a little bit. When I sit down to watch one of these Disney+, live action Star Wars shows, I look at the world within as one big, glorious, shared sandbox. The Star Wars Cinematic Galaxy, if you will. And it warrants mentioning that, two shows in, they’re doing a far more effective job of portraying a cohesive world on the small screen. I enjoyed the prequels, but one thing they did was make that galaxy far, far away seem a lot smaller.
The clones and Boba Fett, and his “father” Jango are one glaring example of that. Having Chewbacca and Yoda sharing screen time was another. Don’t get me wrong, I love that big Wookiee with all my heart, and I was thrilled to see him. But the fact that he fought alongside a Jedi made Han Solo’s speech regarding being skeptical about The Force in A New Hope a little hard to swallow. At any point, Chewie could have piped up and stopped that whole line of thinking dead: “Nope, The Force is totally real. I’ve seen it. I hung out with a Jedi Master. In fact, it’s surprising that we’ve never discussed this before, Han.”
But I digress. Picking at tiny plot holes isn’t an activity I enjoy. And the way that certain characters have been employed and introduced in this newest show, for whatever reason, doesn’t give me that same galaxy-shrinking feeling of uneasiness. Because each and every instance of a character appearing has made complete sense for the story. Because Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, for lack of a better word “get it.”
And I’m so happy and consider myself so fortunate that they do, and that we all get to watch it. Bring on the season finale.
Oh…and it sounds like Obi-Wan Kenobi is not far behind.