Well I'm enjoying it so far at least, even with some of the things in it that I don't like.

Seriously....what was up with those bikes?  

 

I don't really detect studio meddling, outside of maybe Disney telling the creators to tone down how violent and merciless Boba Fett is. Which to me is kind of expected, because you can't make the protagonist of a Star Wars story too villainous.

I do wonder if this show was mandated by Lucasfilm or Disney, after they saw the success of The Mandalorian. From what I gather, that show was Jon Favreau's passion project that he pitched to Lucasfilm. I'd be curious to know if The Book of Boba Fett is part of Favreau's original vision or not. If not, it could be a case of the team being a bit rushed, or devoting less effort to this than the Mandalorian.

It's also worth noting that Rogue One (IMO the best Disney-era Star Wars movie) was John Knoll's passion project, whereas the ST movies and Solo seemed to only exist because Disney needed to cash in on the brand. There are examples of good movies that stared as something a studio mandated (like Infinity War), but it definitely helps to have an idea that sprung from an artist's creative vision.

All that being said, I still do enjoy this show so far. I rewatched Ep.3, and I still like it better than a lot of people seem to. And I still have hope that this is all laying the groundwork for some really exciting stuff that will make the slower buildup worth it. Heck, if all the remaining episodes are the quality of the first three, I'll still like it better than most of the new movies.

 

The whole Archie biker gang thing was cringy, and the overall pace of the show is off but I feel that’s due to rodriguez. As for how they’re fleshing out fetts character, it’s not any worse than how they made his character be in clone wars

 

Nope. I didn't miss a thing. I agree wholeheartedly with what you just said about Favreau.

I'm sure Favreau wrote some great stuff. I just happen to think that Disney execs stepped in after the fact and made them change a bunch of stuff.

It feels like Sam Raimi's Spiderman movies. Sony let Raimi create 2 great movies. Then Sony execs stepped in and demanded that Raimi do all kinds of stupid stuff, giving us Spiderman 3. That's how I see The Book of Boba Fett after seeing seasons 1 and 2 of The Mandalorian.

 

Disney tends to be more hands-off with their successful assets. They pretty much leave Kevin Feige to run marvel. The main exception being the James Gunn controversy, though that has seemingly been corrected. They show more interference with a struggling brand like the movie side of Star Wars. Their influence was very much felt in The Rise of Skywalker. At times, that movie felt like visible checklist of all the problems people had with the previous installment. Conversely, the TV side of things has been very consistent up until now.
I think this show’s problems are more just miscalculations on the part of Robert Rodriguez. Compare the episodes he’s directed with the one by Steph Green and it’s night and day in terms of quality. All of the action sequences by Rodriguez in this series have had fatal flaws in terms of staging, editing, and choreography. He has also gone on to say that he approached Boba Fett as an original character. Almost all of the complaints about Fett’s depiction in this show are about how inconsistent he is to his previous appearances.

The next episode is being directed by Bryce Dallas Howard, so it will be interesting to see if the problems still persist. Both of her episodes on The Mandalorian have been solid at the very least.

Here is the Robert Rodriguez interview for reference:
How The Book of Boba Fett Will Shake Up Star Wars – The Hollywood Reporter

 

I was cool with it all until that crap chase scene. Hopefully there's no more of that awfulness.

 

I assume we might have our war with the Pykes tomorrow, makes me wonder if they'll still have one or two twists on who the true main antagonist is this season. I'm betting it's Jennifer Beals' Twi'lek character at this point.

 

After a slow episode three, I absolutely loved episode 4, with some tense moments and some genuine laugh out loud moments

I particularly loved

Spoiler

the self-terminating rat catcher droid. That reaction to Boba announcing his identity was brilliant  

 

Good episode.

Spoiler

Boba chasing down the bikers and blowing them to hell is EXACTLY what I hoped this show would be. Best sequence in the series so far.

The dialogue is still clunky as hell and the "crime boss" scenario is still flimsy. But the rancor moment was terrific. Still too much bacta tank and goofy humor, though.

 

Spoiler

So does the musical motif at the end mean they'll ask Din Djarin to help out?

 

Glad we finally caught up to the present... And none of that annoyance from last week!

Seems like somebody might be importing some beskar soon.....

 

That seems to be the implication

 

I've been waiting for one of those moments...

Spoiler

When Black Krrrasantan would rip someone's arm off.

Still good episode.

 

Looks like Boba's getting a crew next episode.

I love that LEP droids are canon for live action, better proportions too.

 

Much improved episode. I feel like we finally have a handle on Boba’s motivations, and why he doesn’t just walk away. If the musical hint is true then next week should be fun.

 

This show's annoyingly erratic, and it feels like we're finally at the point it should've started at... at the half-way point.

Spoiler

YOU FOOL


Rabbit droids, Slave 1 action, and "both original and special edition are canon" Sarlaac, oh my!

"I've still got a score to settle..." *mercilessly strafes a bike gang in a gunship* Boy I WISH that had been the tone this entire time.

The hangar escape sure highlights a major fault in the Slave 1's design.

 

Also it seems that this show does indeed work with episode length pattern.

So far to no surprise the longer episodes are the better ones.

 

Spoiler

You mean "Huttslayer 1"? (I'll give @Hicks_Royel the credit for that one)

 

So Rodriguez is directing one more episode, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Filoni himself…

Question is which ones? Any bets?

 

Ok, that was a LOT better than last week.

Spoiler

So the flashback finally catches up to the scene in Mando where Boba finds Fennec. At first I was a little annoyed that with this episode, we now have cyborg-kids (different ones, but same idea) in the flashback AND in the current events part of the show, but at least this was short, with no annoying chase (though, I did see more of those damn vespas). That music in the "Mod" place was terrible.

And then when Fennec is all patched up, Boba explains to her (and us) why he has changed, and I really love it. He's tired of being a Bounty Hunter, answering to moronic crime lords, and figures with the right "tribe", he can do better.

But first, he needs his ship back. Yes, he says Firespray instead of "Slave I", but we all knew this was happening, and the context remains, so I'm fine with it. It's still Slave I to me, it doesn't matter what other people call it, or what some package says.

They sneak into the palace and we see EV-9D9 in the kitchen -- I don't care what the credits of the Mandalorian says, this has to be the true EV-9D9. The bit with the bunny-like droid was funny because it looked like Boba was Elmer Fudd and the droid was a certain Wascally Wabbit. The shootout in the hanger was pretty good too.

I wasn't too happy to see those bikers again, but quickly changed my mind when Slave I came up on them and smoked them. Glad they didn't try to sanitize that. Kill them all.

Then they fly up to the Sarlacc, with Boba positioning the ship so they could look inside to see if his armor was in there, which is odd, because we all saw him escape the pit with his armor still on. He passes out and comes to for a sec, when the Jawas are pulling the armor off of him, so why would he think his armor was still in the Sarlacc? Was he that out of it? Anyway, Slave I gets a hug from the Sarlacc and Fennec feeds it a seismic charge -- bye-bye Sarlacc.

Flashback ends and we see Krrsantan at Mos Espa, heated as he watches some Trandoshan's gambling at the table. We walks over and starts beating the shit out of them, and is about to dismember the last one, as Boba walks in and watches. Garza tries to talk him out of it, and I really thought they were going to resolve it that way, but nope, he rips the lizard arm right off and then pays his tab. Again, glad they didn't sanitize that scene. So much better than the Spy Kids crap we got in the last ep.

Boba offers Krrsanran a job, and then we get the final scene of Boba hosting the other crime bosses at his Palace. Boba wants to unite them all against the Pykes, and with a little persuasion from the Rancor roaring beneath the banquet table, they agree.

Again, so much better than last week.