Review: ‘The Book Of Boba Fett’ S01 Ep.4 ’The Gathering Storm’

Flashbacks have featured prominently in the series thus far and so I wasn’t surprised to see yet another opening up this latest episode of The Book of Boba Fett. What I didn’t expect was it to dominate the episode so much, rendering the whole ordeal rather dull. After all, there is a certain inevitability built into the backstory of Boba’s history after escaping the Sarlac Pit. We all know how this part of his recent history ends, aftre all. And so there is no peril, no excitement and no surprises in its telling. Any flashback is more an exercise in connecting the dots and this time round we get his first meeting with Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Weng) as well as a rather mundane escapade that sees Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) get his ship, Slave I, back from Jabba’s palace. Nothing we haven’t seen a thousands time before across any number of genres, including sci-fi. It all made for the dullest episode yet. But, with his healing now complete, so too are the flashbacks. One hopes. Leaving the last two episodes in this growingly ho-hum series to develop the main plot of Fett’s reign as the big cheese amongst the crime lords of Tatooine.

Only after a good deal of time do we get to view scenes of this nature. And in a series that seemed to promise so much more once more one senses there isn’t really that much of a plot to tell. I mean, what’s really happened across these four episodes? What does this actually bring to the table? Can anyone believes the “mods” we met last episode actually enrich the Star Wars mythos? Really? And, after four episodes, is the familiarity I once thought was fan-serving actually now breeding contempt? 

I had high hopes for this series, especially after two stellar series of The Mandalorian seemed to evidence enough that Jon Favreau was the saviour Star Wars so sorely needed. This series thus far has been far too derivative and far too slow in telling any meaningful, meaty story. How the next two episodes play out without the crutch of flashbacks is something I am still intrigued to see. But, as each instalment of this series has deteriorated in quality, I have to concur with a certain scruffy looking nerd-herder and say, I have a bad feeling about this. I do hope I am proven wrong though.

The Book of Boba Fett is streaming now on Disney + with new episodes every Wednesday