The Book of Boba Fett (spoilers)

[Ryujin]

It isn't, though. They're separate shows with different titles, both marketed at roughly the same audience yes, but I wouldn't expect, for instance, an entire episode of Hawkeye to be dedicated to character development for Wanda Maximoff or Sam Wilson.

The Book of Boba Fett is a short series dedicated to a single character's story, and dedicating an entire episode of that limited run-time to exploring an entirely different character remains weird and out-of-place.

If I want to do a full binge of The Mandalorian at some later date after it's got a couple more seasons under its belt, I'm probably not going to sidestep into watching BoBF after season 2 - but that's going to mean skipping past several plot and character developments.

It's this sort of thing that resulted in me dropping out of watching the Arrowverse programmes. Make one that simply doesn't appeal to me at all, when I have to be fully invested in all the shows in order to keep track, and I'm more likely to just drop them all instead. Hopefully that doesn't happen here.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

We got Boba and Fennec's backstory first and next we get the story for why they will be part of Mandalorian season 3. Next episode, Mando maybe grabs Grogu, and maybe calls in Bo-Katan to help with the Pykes in the final episode. We may even get a cliffhanger that leads directly into season 3.

For viewers who only care about Din and Grogu, starting BoBF with episode 5 seems perfectly acceptable viewing.

 

[Staffan]

It's this sort of thing that resulted in me dropping out of watching the Arrowverse programmes. Make one that simply doesn't appeal to me at all, when I have to be fully invested in all the shows in order to keep track, and I'm more likely to just drop them all instead. Hopefully that doesn't happen here.

Yeah, crossovers can be fun and all, but character development for the main characters belong in their own show. Side characters can get developed in both.

In retrospect, this is something they did pretty well on Buffy/Angel. When Buffy showed up on Angel, it was still an Angel episode, and Buffy was there for Angel to bounce his character development off of, not for Buffy to do her own development. You can still watch that season of Buffy without watching Angel and not miss anything more than "Buffy went away to LA to deal with some stuff with Angel and now she's back."

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It isn't, though.

It has the same showrunner. It has the same stable of writers and directors. It has the same tone, the same time period, is set in the same location, and has an overlapping cast. It's called TBoBF because Mandalorian Series 2.5 (in which Mando only appears in a couple of episodes) is not a very snappy title, nor is Star Wars: Some Stuff That Happens Between Episode VI and VII. It's more comparable to the story names of Classic Doctor Who. The Web Planet was eleven episodes long.

If you compare it to The Clone Wars, also made by the same team, we might spend three episodes following a group of random clone troopers, then have a story about a Jar Jar Binks Mace Windu team up, then move onto Boba Fett - Juvenile Delinquent. If you are only interested in the adventures of Anakin Skywalker you are going to be disappointed.

If I want to do a full binge of The Mandalorian at some later date after it's got a couple more seasons under its belt, I'm probably not going to sidestep into watching BoBF after season 2 - but that's going to mean skipping past several plot and character developments.

Then you are consuming the media in a way it wasn't designed to be consumed. If you are going to keep up you need to learn the new* media literacy.



* It's not than new, comics have been doing it that way since at least the 1960s.

 

[MarkB]

It has the same showrunner. It has the same stable of writers and directors. It has the same tone, the same time period, is set in the same location, and has an overlapping cast. It's called TBoBF because Mandalorian Series 2.5 (in which Mando only appears in a couple of episodes) is not a very snappy title, nor is Star Wars: Some Stuff That Happens Between Episode VI and VII. It's more comparable to the story names of Classic Doctor Who. The Web Planet was eleven episodes long.

Same showrunner, different show. To use your analogy, it'd be equivalent to burying some essential plot developments for the Doctor and the TARDIS in an episode of Torchwood.

If you compare it to The Clone Wars, also made by the same team, we might spend three episodes following a group of random clone troopers, then have a story about a Jar Jar Binks Mace Windu team up, then move onto Boba Fett - Juvenile Delinquent. If you are only interested in the adventures of Anakin Skywalker you are going to be disappointed.

I'm never interested in the adventures of Anakin Skywalker. And I did lose interest in The Clone Wars a few seasons in. But that aside, it's still a single show, and still marketed as such. This is not.

Then you are consuming the media in a way it wasn't designed to be consumed. If you are going to keep up you need to learn the new* media literacy.

It's hardly universal. This is the only recent show I can think of that basically placed an entire episode from a different show into its runtime.

* It's not than new, comics have been doing it that way since at least the 1960s.

Which is one of the reasons I've never been much of a comic reader.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

To use your analogy, it'd be equivalent to burying some essential plot developments for the Doctor and the TARDIS in an episode of Torchwood.

It's not, because Torchwood is made for an adult audience and Doctor Who if for watching with children. The shows are tonally very different. The Star Wars Show is tonally the same and made for the same audience.

It's hardly universal. This is the only recent show I can think of that basically placed an entire episode from a different show into its runtime.

Which is one of the reasons I've never been much of a comic reader.

The effect of streaming, expect to see a lot more of it in future, especially on Disney+, where the big franchises live. As with all societal changes, you either have to like it or lump it.

 

[MarkB]

The effect of streaming, expect to see a lot more of it in future, especially on Disney+, where the big franchises live. As with all societal changes, you either have to like it or lump it.

Except that we haven't really seen more of it, and certainly not from Disney. We haven't seen it in the Marvel shows, which have each been pretty much self-contained.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Except that we haven't really seen more of it, and certainly not from Disney. We haven't seen it in the Marvel shows, which have each been pretty much self-contained.

Yet.

 

[MarkB]

Yet.

So basically this is just you guessing.

 

[Older Beholder]

It’s really starting to feel like the Boba Fett chapter of the Mando story.
Lots of familiar faces in that episode.