The Book of Boba Fett

Skippable with a significant asterisk. Episodes five and six are Mandalorian episodes in everything but name, advancing Din Djarin's story between seasons two and three, and anybody following that show will be confused by season three without them. The rest of the series is genuinely optional.

The optional part is a crime drama about Boba Fett taking over Jabba's operation on Tatooine, and its problem is that it makes him a politician. The character's entire appeal was that he was an unexplained professional with four lines; this gives him a philosophy, a found family, a speech about ruling with respect rather than fear, and a flashback structure that spends much of the first half explaining how he survived.

There are good stretches. The Tusken sequences in the early episodes are the series at its best, treating a people the films used as a hazard as a culture with laws and a language. Ming-Na Wen is a reliable presence throughout.

Then there is a street gang on brightly coloured speeders that moves at walking pace, and a final battle that resolves with a monster from the animated series. Watch the two Mandalorian episodes, and the rest only if you want it.