The Book of Boba Fett literally starts by answering the age-old question: how did Boba Fett survive being in that creature?

It’s my very first time doing one of these, and I just watched it. This is the all-new Disney Plus Star Wars series from executive producers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, the same brain trust that brought us The Mandalorian. The episode is called “Stranger in a Strange Land,” and it stars, of course, Temuera Morrison in the role that sort of made him a household name in Star Wars circles. If you recall, Boba Fett is the son of Jango Fett from the second chapter of the prequel trilogy. He’s the unaltered clone of Jango, no genetic tweaks, so he’s a legend in Star Wars terms too. Co-starring with him is Ming-Na Wen as Fennec Shand, the assassin we met in The Mandalorian.

Let’s be straight up before I get wild. It’s sort of a lackluster opening. However, it’s 100% redeemed by the opening scene.

Inside the Belly of the Sarlacc

When last we saw Boba Fett, he’d been eaten by the Sarlacc. So that’s where he wakes up in his dream, inside the belly of the thing. Immediately he sees what looks like a slowly decomposing Stormtrooper, and he pulls something out of the Stormtrooper’s helmet. I assume it’s some sort of air or life support system. Then he proceeds to burst through and start setting fire, and next thing you know we’re back up top with Jabba’s barge, all wrecked the same way it had been in Star Wars. He comes out covered head to toe.

Quick flash forward to the night, and of course some Jawas pull up and take his stuff. That brings it full circle and gives us how he actually lost his armor and ultimately ended up where he was.

Then he gets captured. I want to say captured, but the truth is he’s more like discovered. He’s discovered by some Sand People, and the Sand People do what Sand People do. They take him back, and he attempts to escape. There’s a Rodian who’s also there, and the Rodian sounds the alarm, because he’s a big wuss.

A Different Kind of Daimyo

That ushers us into the present. Fennec wakes him up, and there are people there to pay respects to the new daimyo over in Mos Espa. The first one comes and gives a tribute. The mayor sends a sycophant, and the sycophant isn’t too quick to give him anything other than the mayor’s heartfelt greetings. Apparently they expect a bribe. Fennec’s like, you want to kill him? And he’s like, whatever.

Clearly Boba intends to be a different kind of daimyo, and he actually says so a little bit later. He says he intends to rule not by fear, but by respect. Fennec points out that sometimes fear is a lot quicker, and it does the job a little better too. So he’s having to really establish himself.

First thing he does is visit one of the establishments in his criminal empire. It looks like a gambling type bar place. Really neat place, at least on paper. And it has Jennifer Beals, who I haven’t seen in forever, playing a Twi’lek who owns the establishment. She’s super quick to be like, hey, it’s your place now, it’s all good. They took his helmet to shine it, and Fennec’s like, hey, your helmet’s a little shinier than mine. Inside Boba Fett’s helmet is a whole bunch of golden money. I assume it’s whatever they use for credits out there in the Outer Rim.

I almost forgot this part. When Boba Fett and Fennec leave Jennifer Beals’ place, they get jumped by, I don’t know, what are they? Sand ninjas, I guess. Sounds as good as any. And the sand ninjas do a pretty good number on them.

There are these two Gamorrean guards, which is really great. They were loyal to Jabba, and later on to Bib Fortuna, and ultimately he’s like, “Hey, y’all want to work for me?” They actually do a good job. They jump in, help him and Fennec out, and get him back to the bacta tank while Fennec chases one of the ninjas. Her job is to bring one back alive so they can figure out what the heck’s going on.

The Creature Out of the Role-Playing Book

When he’s brought back to the bacta tank, you get another flashback of his time with the Sand People. There’s a Sand People kid who brings him and the Rodian out to go look for these water pods, or seeds, I don’t know what they are. They’ve got water in them, whatever. And they stumble upon a creature.

This creature literally looks like it came out of the Jabba the Hutt menagerie book from the 1980s. I used to have a role-playing book. There was a Star Wars role-playing game before the actual D20 Star Wars role-playing game that exists now, an older one, and that creature belongs in that game.

If it wasn’t for the fact that it looks so good, it would look bad, because it’s almost cartoonish. But I’m here for it. It’s cartoonish in the way the rancor was, or better yet the rancor’s owner, or even the Gamorrean guards are. I’m digging it.

It Feels Like The Mandalorian, and It Feels Like an Origin Story

This first episode was written by Jon Favreau, and it follows the entire formula that was begun in The Mandalorian. It’s got that same feel. It feels like another episode of a western series, continuing that vibe.

I’ve got no doubt and all trust in Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau, who’ve done magic in terms of keeping Star Wars lore and making it feel very Star Wars. This feels very Star Wars. Funny enough though, I do find myself saying it feels exactly like it belongs in the Mandalorian world. Sorry about that, Patty Jenkins. If Star Wars is here, The Mandalorian is Star Wars adjacent, a second path so to speak, and The Book of Boba Fett fits perfectly on it. We see some droids, there’s a really ugly droid who’s sort of talking, there’s some alien speak, and at one point Boba Fett’s like, “I think we’re going to need a translator.”

We didn’t get anything I remember seeing in the trailers or the teasers, which is the whole bit where he’s confronting all the other crime lords and trying to set up his own thing. And next week’s episode will really determine if this is what they’re doing, but we may be watching parallel stories.

I don’t know if this is just my take on it, but I feel like we’re learning a little too much. It feels like an origin story. And that was weird, especially because he doesn’t really need one. So I’m interested to see how they walk the line with the legend of who Boba Fett is.

But yeah, man, Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni are giving us the series we always wanted. It’s the crime series we were promised in the late ’90s and early 2000s. It’s the Boba Fett criminal underground series, and we’ll see what it does.

The Verdict

The Book of Boba Fett Chapter 1, “Stranger in a Strange Land,” is a 6 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index.

This was kind of a soft open for me. That doesn’t mean it was bad. That’s not a six out of 10 that it was bad. That’s a six out of 10 that it was slow. But I’m okay with that. Parts of The Mandalorian were slow burn, and I don’t see why this should be any different. They’re establishing some things and setting up some stuff.

The show isn’t bad. The intro’s a little bit lackluster, but by the end of the episode we’ve finally found out how Boba Fett survived, and I’m excited.

Tell me what you thought of how the series has gotten started. This was my first one of these, and I’m really excited to be doing it. Some shows I’ll be able to cover week to week, and some will have to be series reviews, depending on how flexible my time is. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.