The Book of Boba Fett finally had a good episode this week: "It actually has a story to tell, and it’s having fun telling it"

Slate

"If you gave up on The Book of Boba Fett after the first few episodes, I don’t blame you," says Marissa Martinelli. "'Fan service' gets a bad rap, especially when it comes to Star Wars, because giving Star Wars fans what they want (or what they think they want) can be at odds with making something actually interesting and new. Those early episodes of The Book of Boba Fett are a fan-service cautionary tale: a show about a beloved character for the sake of it, a prequel to events that don’t require that much explanation, plodding and perfunctory and lacking a certain something to set it apart. Even the show’s star has indicated in interviews that he thinks the creators don’t understand Boba Fett’s main appeal. The good news is, if you’re a Mandalorian fan that had tuned out of The Book of Boba Fett, you can and should tune back in for Episode 6, 'From the Desert Comes a Stranger.' As a bonus: You do not need to have watched any of the preceding episodes of the show to enjoy it. The episode, which dropped on Disney+ on Wednesday, is directed and co-written by Dave Filoni, who knows from fan service—after all, he’s the one who slipped a whole episode about another beloved character, Ahsoka Tano, into Season 2 of The Mandalorian. But unlike the rest of The Book of Boba Fett, 'From the Desert Comes a Stranger' doesn’t feel like it’s going through the motions, finding excuses to put certain characters onscreen. It actually has a story to tell, and it’s having fun telling it." Martinelli adds: "it’s not so much who’s onscreen as how the story unfolds that makes 'From the Desert Comes a Stranger' so refreshing. I can’t say much more without spoiling it, but there are finally some real, immediate, emotional stakes in play. There’s a cool villain to root against, not just a nameless, faceless syndicate. It’s not trying too hard to be gritty and not afraid to be goofy. And yes, I’ll admit, it’s a thrill when two characters, who diehard fans have long wanted to see share a scene together, finally meet. It turns out that a little bit of fan service, when done right, doesn’t hurt anyone."

ALSO:

• This week's episode was the perfect recipe for forgetting Boba Fett: "This chapter is more than mere service for fans of Filoni’s former work," says Ben Lindbergh. "It’s a nexus of series and story lines that, like Fett himself, spans three phases of Star Wars, incorporating the prequel-era roots of Ahsoka Tano and live-action rookie Cad Bane, the original-trilogy classicism of Luke Skywalker and R2-D2, and the Mandalorian memories of Cobb Vanth, Din Djarin, and Grogu. Even individually, the wrenching near-reunion of Mando and Grogu, the almost-as-moving rendezvous between Luke and Ahsoka, or the badass debut of Bane would have made for an indelible morsel of Star Wars. Put the three together, and you have a perfect recipe for forgetting Fett—a setback for this series, maybe, but a tour de Force for the franchise."
• What makes this week's sequences so magical is how director Dave Filoni and his co-writer Jon Favreau weave in homages for every generation of Star Wars fan
• The Book of Boba Fett is playing into Star Wars' fandom's warmer reappraisal of The Phantom Menace
• How Star Wars fandom resulted in Boba Fett going from minor character to leading man