Star Wars

Trailer for The Book of Boba Fett, starting December 29.

Has anyone watched Boba Fett yet?

We have, and it's… fine? Production values are good, I guess.

The soundtrack isn't as good as The Mandalorian, and I don't think Morrison has quite the presence for some of the more intimidating stuff he's being asked to do. Mostly, though, I'm not invested in anything that's happening. The tusken stuff is vaguely interesting, but it's only going one of two ways; on the other hand, I don't care who's Daijo of Mos Espa, and I don't really understand why Boba Fett wants the job.

The show seems to just be trading on the idea that you think a character with about eight minutes of screen time and approximately five lines of dialogue in the original trilogy is Cool And Badass enough to spend seven hours with as he repeatedly gets his ass handed to him by children & street thugs, all while displaying a frankly frightening level of ignorance about the criminal underworld he's attempting to take control of.

By the end of the first scene of The Mandalorian, I was on board. Two episodes into this, and I'm considering dropping it.

approximately five lines of dialogue in the original trilogy

Is it that many? I can only think of one.

I checked, and compiled the sum total of Boba Fett's utterances in the original trilogy:

• He makes, like, a sarcastic noise at Vader in the Star Destroyer after being told, "No disintegrations."
• "He's no good to me dead."
• "As you wish."
• "What if he doesn't survive? He's worth a lot to me."
• "Put Captain Solo in the cargo hold."
• Wilhelm scream as he plummets into the sarlacc.

So yes, five was being over-generous.

It’s funny but when I was watching Return of the Jedi, I didn’t once think that Boba Fett under the helmet would look like Phil Mitchell.

I really like it. I thibk its better than the Mando as Boba Fett seems like a character, not just someone who turns up and does one thing and then leaves, which is what seems to happen every episode in the Mandolorian.

It does seem odd that Boba Fett the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy, is like an old dad bod guy, he was a 7/8 year old kid in a film that is set roughly 24 years before this as skywalker is a teenager in Star Wars and then there is about 4 years to Jedi, Boba should have been about max 37 when he gets knocked into the Sarlaac, and is in there about a week from the looks of it? As the Jabba barge is still there.

I do like the portrayl of the Tuskans as Native Americans who have been wronged too, rather than the way they are usually shown.

I really like it. I thibk its better than the Mando as Boba Fett seems like a character, not just someone who turns up and does one thing and then leaves, which is what seems to happen every episode in the Mandolorian.

Hold on… This was the thing I really liked about the first series. It was pure Saturday evening tea time fun when I was 8 and the Mandolorian is really the A-Team. I've not watched the second series yet.

My main issue, I realised after episode 3, is that Boba Fett, as presented in the show, is a fucking idiot.

Spoiler - click to showIn episode 1, he is attacked by assassins. The lone survivor, under threat of rancor, tells him that they were hired by the mayor, so Fett goes, "THE MAYOR!!!" and runs off to yell the Star Wars equivalent of "j'accuse!" at him. The mayor, in response, says, "nuh-uh, not me bro, must have been the hutts, for sure," so Fett goes, "THE HUTTS!!!!" and immediately confronts/is menaced by them and their predator wookiee. They try to kill him with said predator wookiee, then turn up at his house to tell him that they didn't send the first assassins, it must have been the mayor again, so Fett goes, "THE MAYOR!!!!!" and runs off to confront him.

He's a gullible fool, taking everyone in the criminal underworld immediately at their word, and blundering from one confrontation to the next with no thought or consideration - which is in direct contrast to the ruthless, confident, calculating bounty hunter we got four lines of dialogue from in Empire.

Also, the tone is all over the fucking place. What on earth was the music playing during that godawful chase scene in episode 3? It was one of the five least exciting things I've ever seen in my life.

Episode 3 felt like a typical episode 3, especially in a show where, like you say, it's struggling to find it's tone.

When he was declared Dynorod of Tatooine or whatever, I was hoping for some Sopranos style show about the criminal underworld in Star Wars, hopefully starring an older version of Death Sticks guy (I expect he'll get a cameo in Obi Wan) but we've got a show that doesn't really know what it wants to be.

It's not awful, it's watchable, mostly for the Tusken Raider stuff, but, yeah, it's difficult to reccomend.

Oh, and additionally:
Spoiler - click to showFridging the tuskens was the laziest, shittiest thing they could do.

Guys, I think I might hate this show.

The Book of Boba Fett feels like DLC for the Mandalorian - the kind of DLC where you thought you wanted it because it's more of what you enjoyed, but it turns out the novelty's worn off and it doesn't do anything new and you know it's just filler content while they work on the next big thing.

Book of Boba Fett suddenly feels like a different show.
Spoiler - click to showYes that other show.

In terms of quality, or just content?

Spoiler - click to showWe haven't been watching, but I've been on the internet, so I know some of the stuff that's happening. Are we just in the Grogu Extended Universe now?

The first four episodes just felt like filler, then suddenly we are watching The Mandalorian again.

The first four episodes just felt like filler, then suddenly we are watching The Mandalorian again.

Well that's good to know - we decided to start catching up this weekend and we watched episode 4 last night.

It's just so… underwhelming.

Spoiler - click to showIt's a middle-aged oaf bumbling around in the desert. (It's concerning that we have an Obi-Wan series coming up which, by definition, is also going to be exactly this). None of the storylines have any impact outside of Mos Espa, the Pikes are under-used as a threat, they even managed to bring in Evil Chewie and make him not very interesting. I'm really fed up of Tatooine as a setting, the body modifications feel like they've been dropped in from another show entirely, Fett Club 7 on their shiny Space Vespas can fuck right off, and the split timeline structure is weird, as we've already seen the middle segment of Fett's adventures on The Mandalorian.

I've heard the next two episodes pick up, but it'll have to be a spectacular turnaround to rescue this show from where it's sitting at the end of episode 4.

The Mandalorian was a soulless, painterly gribbly of the week with about as much charisma as a verruca. So, very excited to see Boba taking a step up.

I like that they're bringing back the real boba fett though as a mute shit head that just stands around in the background of a few scenes while more interesting characters do all the talking

OK yes, this did turn itself around rather in the last three episodes. Admittedly it did so by shoehorning in two episodes of The Mandalorian then a live-action episode of The Clone Wars, but it was pretty great.

Just finished watching the Book of Boba Fett. I thought Rodriguez was supposed to be good at this sort of shit?

Here's the trailer for Disney's second Star Wars series of the year about a middle-aged man pissing about in the desert.

Anyone watch the first two episodes of Obbly Wobbly Kenobbly yet?

Pretty weak so far I think but it's more or less saved by McGregor's performance - it's fascinating watching him trying to bridge the gap between Alec Guinness's taciturn performance and his own 20-year-old interpretation of the same character. At times Obi-Wan seems genuinely broken.

The rest of it, though:

Spoiler - click to showRidiculous low-speed chases! Terrible rooftop parkour! Annoying child actors! It's got the lot. I'm mostly annoyed though that the Grand Inquisitor looks wrong, sounds wrong and has none of the gravitas or presence that he had in Rebels. In fact the Inquisitors in general are made to look like a complete bunch of clowns, easily foiled by a Jedi dropping a small cloth awning behind him as he runs away. And yet again there are two Jedi just casually hanging out in a small town on Tatooine? That place genuinely is the centre of the galaxy.

I guess we'll see if it improves when Hayden Christensen shows up, and that's a sentence no-one's ever written before.

And episode 3 was genuinely superb. So maybe it’s just a slow burn.

And episode 3 was genuinely superb. So maybe it’s just a slow burn.

Just watched ep3 - top TV! I thought the first two episodes were entertaining enough, but that was really good, genuinely tense and chilling at one point. Hope the second half of the series lives up to it.

Enjoyed the rest of OWK, it never quite lived up to that sequence in the third episode, but it was entertaining and most importantly felt like Star Wars in a way only TFA and Rogue One has managed of the new stuff that I've seen. Predictable but satisfying/10

I dunno about anyone else, but I'm really digging Andor after those first three episodes. I am probably the biggest Rogue One fan on the Soc though, so I'm predisposed to liking this.

I loved Rogue One. Haven’t watch Andor yet though.

As with pretty much everything else these days, I'm waiting until it's all out before I watch it. I can't be bothered with trying to watch several different things at once at 30 minutes per week.

Can't say I'm too fussed about it though, it feels like the unnecessary back-story for the most boring character in the unnecessary prequel movie. Wasn't much of a fan of Rogue One and I'm more than ready for Star Wars to try something new rather than constantly trying to ram stories into the same five-year period in the timeline.

I'm more than ready for Star Wars to try something new rather than constantly trying to ram stories into the same five-year period in the timeline

I kind of understand where you're coming from with this, but my problem with Star Wars' myopia isn't because it's focused on a single conflict – it's a big galaxy, and there are a lot of stories that could be told with that backdrop – so much as the same people over and over.

Andor is, for my money, the kind of thing that Star Wars TV should be doing. It's a ground-level story about people we wouldn't normally hear about, but who make up the majority of the good guys. We see why they're fighting, and what they're fighting against. It's part spy movie, part war movie, part political thriller.

There's no destiny or dynasties, just desperate ordinary people scrabbling to exist against the Empire's best efforts. The kid with the manifesto in Andor is a tremendous addition to the texture of the Star Wars universe, and that's almost worth the existence of the series on his own.

I don't know what "something new" looks like for Star Wars if it's not this – some different Jedi?

I've watched the first two episodes of Andor now and it's boring as shit. 90 minutes of people walking around and going through doorways. So many doorways. Nothing whatsoever has happened outside of the first 10 minutes.

It is exactly what you'd expect if you took a fun and exciting series of movies aimed mainly at children and allowed a bunch of nerds to overthink it and make Something Very Serious.

I love it. There is no doubt that it is slow but the characters and the locations are so well realised that I was never bored and the pay-off when things do start "happening" is fantastic.

Gar, maybe give it one more episode and if you still don't like it quit there.

I think we'd decided to do that ourselves anyway so we'll give it one more and see how we go. I'm finding it a bit ponderous but my son is starting to get actively fidgety when it's on so I think he'll be ditching it after the next one unless it suddenly gets really good. He only really likes the comedy droid so far.

It's always a bad sign when you've watched for an hour and a half and have no idea what the names of any of the characters are. Apart from "Tim" I guess which just made us all laugh.

I'm more than ready for Star Wars to try something new

It is exactly what you'd expect if you took a fun and exciting series of movies aimed mainly at children and allowed a bunch of nerds to overthink it and make Something Very Serious.

So the problem is that it's too different from existing Star Wars, but it's not different enough from existing Star Wars?

I reckon there's enough room in the Star Wars universe for a slow-burn spy thriller alongside the high-octane space wizard stuff; the existence of one doesn't diminish the other, and not every piece of media needs to appeal to every fan.

It's possible for a thing to be tonally consistent but narratively interesting.

So the problem is that it's too different from existing Star Wars, but it's not different enough from existing Star Wars?

No, the problem is that it's incredibly boring.

In your opinion, sure. I disagree.

Andor is spectacularly good. Actual real acting in a Star Wars thing. Holy shit. And the creeping horror of the banality of the fascism in it is chilling. I think I said on rllmuk the bit which really convinced me was when they pulled in the space sex worker to identify Andor and THE DIRECTOR CUT THE SCENE BEFORE SHE SAID "yes that's Andor". Star Wars without ponderous, shitty, groan inducingly obvious writing and scene transitions???!? A scene leaving you with some element of "hmm, I wonder what happened next". Fucking brilliant. Something you wouldn't be cringing to watch with a functioning adult in the room for a change.???!??? In my Star Wars??!!?

And Andor's space mom - holy shit her acting in bits. Can you imagine this class of acting in Mandalorian where a boring faceless space man wanders around with a fucking puppet for 2 seasons? Oh and the Owen Jones guy - brilliant. And the Imperials. Brilliant. And the politics and the shitty husband. I love it all so much. Imagine what Rogue One could've been, and I still think the result is great. A show that knows to care about characters you need to spend time with them before kicking off an action scene?!!??! In my Star Wars??!?!?

This absolutely humiliates the other SW spin off projects. I'd put it up there with the good seasons of BSG.

I didn't even mention the Tie Fighter in the valley bit. OH MY GOD SO GOOD.

Episode 8 has to be one of the best bits of Star Wars since Empire.

At this point, I don't think anyone new is coming on board Andor who hasn't liked what they've already seen, but holy shit episode 10 is spectacular.

Spoiler - click to showI saw it coming as soon as they got to the exit, but Serkis' delivery of "I can't swim" was *chef's kiss* as the button on a tremendous performance all around. The control room guard's immediate realisation at how little Cassian gives a shit about his "but it'll take months to turn the power back on" excuse. And Skarsgård's monologue, Jesus!

The whole thing's escalating and building beautifully.

Holy fuck. Just so good.

Spine tinglingly good. It's so confident in what it's trying to do. Serkis and Skarsgård were tremendous. The bit with space Rik Mayall chilling (genuinely). Jesus, just all of it is so good. And the fact they don't EXPLAIN EVERYTHING ALL THE TIME is a high watermark for Star Wars. As is bringing forward some of the themes in Rogue One - that resistance and defying fascism walks a fine line between a longer term good and short term horror. And I love the fracturing of even that, from Space Owen Jones to Forest Whittaker. What is good/bad? Some really important themes in this nicely packaged along top tier 70s style space opera.

As I said on the 'muk the release point in this is going to be nothing short of spectacular. It deliberately has hidden any visual or tangible real signs of the Rebellion being anything more than a dream, and when it resolves that and shit gets fucked up it'll be one of the most cathartic bits of TV ever. Can you imagine the sheer air punching delight if an X-Wing shows up?

There's a pretty good interview with Tony Gilroy that digs into the intentions versus realities of the production, and how the COVID lockdowns affected the Aldahni stuff for the better.

I think I'm just going to be listening to the Andor soundtrack until midnight on Tuesday.

The boy ditched Andor after six episodes but we're grimly plugging on with it, we watched episode 9 last night.

I'm just not getting out of it what everyone else seems to be getting. It feels like they had about four hours of show that they then found out they were required to stretch out over ten - this was yet another instance where it had backed itself into telling a story over the course of three episodes that should have been done in two, or even one. We all know he's going to escape from prison, just get on with it, you don't need a filler episode in the middle where nothing happens. The prison sequences were interspersed with another scene of Jimmy Carr having breakfast with his mum in the Barbican that was exactly the same as the last one we saw, and yet more interminable Mon Mothma sequences.

Anyway, stuff actually happened (sort of) in episodes 3 and 6, so I'm hoping the next one will be decent at least. So far Andy Serkis is the only good thing about this show.

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At this stage, it kinda feel like you're missing the point on purpose.

I was a little less keen on the last episode precisely because it seemed to contain a 15 minute segment for people who were struggling with an actual plot, drama and acting. It was a snapback of the kind that I was hoping for, I guess, but a bit Bond movie.

It was still quite cool though, Cantwell class was a lovely nod. The Imperial Officer's face going through a range of emotions after the fuck up was well done.

XWings on the ground were cool and I loved that entire sequence. Saw works well here, and this certainly fleshes out what Whittaker was going for in Rogue One (which didn't quite work). Indeed, my only main criticism now is the fact everyone has perfect teeth.

And there are people who don't like this for the same reason there are people who don't like Succession. It's the Ozark effect in TV - people demand a constant stream of things happening with little grounds for realistic character motivation or backstory. Succession, while excruciating at times, works hard for every event and by the time something major happens it allows deeper interplay between the characters because of it. Ozarking shows just ends up with the introduction of Poochie style characters (e.g. the brother) or killing people at random for engagement. Characters never develop or change, they are simply dropped into a different circumstance. But Ozark is massively more popular than Succession, so clearly there's a far larger audience for that approach.

In Andor a major character death just occurred off screen (unless it's a bluff). It can afford to do that because of the groundwork in previous episodes. It makes for far more interesting TV when you build a structure that allows you to relay story in ways that aren't explicitly shouting things at the viewer. But to get there you have to chew your food, and in a competitive media landscape with people half watching things with a phone in one hand you have to wonder how many other Andors we'll see.

Yeah, that was pretty much a "make sure everybody knows where everything is before the finale" episode, but still had some good moments.

There's a fairly compelling fan theory about

Spoiler - click to showLuthen Rael being a jedi that survived Order 66, specifically a student of Dooku's with a similar name

but I'm really hoping we stay away from that kind of stuff a little bit longer.

Spoiler - click to showHis spaceship has lightsabers sticking out the sides, so it does seem likely. I would be OK with that revelation though.