I still contend the best thing Star Wars ever did was to give us heroes other than Jedi. I wearied of House Skywalker and House Palpatine’s galactic conflicts. I wanted to see how other heroes got on in the Star Wars Universe.

Jon Favreau’s Mandalorian gave us the non-Jedi’s life, in spades. A rough and tumble life without the magical powers and fancy cutlery present in the movies.

The Mandalorian sang when Boba Fett first made his appearance after being believed dead for decades. His reintroduction to the Star Wars lineup galvanized fans and made the House of Mouse run out and star filming ‘The Book Of Boba Fett.’

The Book of Boba Fett gives us a chance to partake of Fett’s story after his demise and see if he is worthy of the legend we have invented in our heads these thirty years.

We are getting to replace our head-canon on this strangely popular character whose claim to fame was his brief appearances, a preference for disintegrations and a badly depicted death in the belly of a sarlacc all those years ago.

We get more of Tatooine, the habits of the Tusken Raiders, the culture of Most Espa and how business is done, than in all the years we have visited this planet.

Treachery, beauty, betrayal and the constant threat of murder are in the breeze as Boba Fett and Master Assassin, Fennec Shand explore and attempt to consolidate their holdings.

Boba’s time in the Bacta tank, a regeneration technology in the Empire, is a clever way for us to see all the backstory we wanted to know, from escaping sarlaccs to Prisoner 101, a class on managing an alien culture when you have no language in common.

This was a surprise to me that Boba spoke few languages common to to Most Espa. No Rodian or Tusken, both seem like an oversight if you’re living on the desert world of Tatooine. He better hurry up and invest in that protocol droid…

There was so much to enjoy in this first episode, it made me ready for more. I am enjoying Shand and Fett’s interactions. There is clearly shown respect between the two. I hope it will continue.

This first episode gave me everything I could want in a show about the greatest bounty hunter we have never truly seen in action until his guest appearances in the Mandalorian.

Back on Tatooine, Star Wars fans will love what they’ve done with the place. New viewers won’t quite understand the appeal but they’ll have enough story being built to keep up. Like the Mandalorian, thirty minutes just isn’t nearly enough.

Rated: 8.5/10

The Book of Boba Fett S1:E1 “Stranger in a Strange Land”, starring Temuera Morrison and Ming-Na Wen, reveals a complex and compelling character under the helmet. Fennec Shand is also excellently depicted in what promises to be a dynamic and complicated spinoff.

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