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[LOLtron]

The Outhouse's resident Gleek, Erik Galston, reviews the latest episode of Glee, "Asian F".


Glee's third episode (and last episode before November due to the World Series) focused heavily on a few characters who haven't received much attention since last year. "Asian F" put the focus on Mike Chang, Mercedes Jones and Ms. Pillsbury, while also moving forward the storylines of Rachel and Kurt.

Last week's episode ended with both Kurt and Rachel getting extra competition in their respective goals. This week showed how far Rachel is willing to go to get into school.

The episode started off with Mercedes having some issues at Booty Camp. Cut to the next scene, Mercedes' boyfriend tells her she shouldn't be friendly with Rachel until she gets the part in the musical. He reminds her of the musical Dreamgirls, and that she can't let Rachel stand in her way. Mercedes' auditions with Jennifer Hudson's "Spotlight," and makes the decision on who gets Maria even harder for the directors.

Mike Chang's father, Mike Chang Sr., is in Principal Figgin's office because Mike got an A- in Chemistry. To Mike's father, and apparently all Asians, an A- is an Asian F. Mike's dad blames the grade on being in glee club or his relationship with Tina, which causes Principal Figgins to remember when Tina made him think she's a vampire in the first season.

Rachel and Kurt are handing out buttons for Kurt's campaign when Brittany and Santana walk up to them and try to get Rachel's vote. Brittany holds an flash mob pep rally, pretty much getting the entire female student body's vote, after performing Beyonce's "Run The World (Girls)."

Mike blows off his chemistry tutor to audition for the musical. Mike really wows the directors with his performance of "Cool" from West Side Story.

The musical directors decide to hold a call back audition for the role of Maria, between Rachel and Mercedes. Rather than let them choose what song they are singing, they decide that both will sing "Out Here On My Own" from Fame.

At the next Booty Camp, Mercedes blows up at Mr. Schuester after he tells her she needs to do better. She says that she's better than everyone in New Directions. Will tells her that if she walks out she's out of the club. This segues into the group doing "Its All Over" from Dreamgirls, with Mercedes taking the Effie role.

At the Diva Off, Rachel feels that Mercedes did better and she thinks she won't get the part. The next day Rachel tells Coach Bieste that she's gonna run for Senior Class President. When Kurt finds out, he confronts her, clearly upset since this was the one way he could hopefully get into the school in New York.

Mike Chang's mother finds Mike dancing at the school, and she tells him that it's her job to let him pursue his dreams. She tells him that when he finds out about the musical she will help him tell his father. Mike finds out that his mother gave up dance to live the life she did, so he teaches her how to dance.

Will decides to have Emma's parents over, as he finds it odd that she's thinking about marriage and he hasn't met her parents. When they come over, he realizes that they are not really good parents, as they are what caused Emma's OCD. Emma's parents being there really sets her off. All the progress she had made on her OCD is gone, and she has gone back to her old ways. Will comforts Emma when she breaks down crying.

In order to not upset either girl, the directors decide to double cast Maria, and let each actress play her for a week. When Mercedes asks if any other part was double cast, the directors are quiet. Mercedes asks Rachel to tell her she was better than her. Rachel doesn't say anything. Mercedes declines the role, allowing Rachel to be the lead. When Rachel tells Finn, she also asks if she has his vote, and he tells her he doesn't know.

At the end of the episode the cast list goes up: Mike got the part he auditioned for, Blaine got the role of Tony (and Kurt was happy for him), and Rachel obviously got the part of Maria. The last scene of the show was Mercedes joining Shelby's glee club.

This episode in my mind was good. Plot lines moved forward and Santana is back in the club. I enjoyed the music selections used in the episode. For the first time in a while Mercedes got three songs in an episode. I really enjoyed the comparisons with the musical Dreamgirls. Brittany's performance was probably my favorite performance she's done, and it really showed off Heather Morris's talents.

To me this episode had a lot of ups and downs emotionally. I teared up when Emma broke down at the end of the episode.

Tonight's episode is the last one until November as Fox has baseball in primetime. I look forward to the next episode, with Burt entering the race against Sue.

Written or Contributed by: Erik Galston


http://173.199.169.70/index.php/reviews/entertainment-reviews/16439-gleeview-asian-f.html/

[Starlord]

Single best episode of this series... hands down.

[e_galston]

Single best episode of this series... hands down.

which is funny, cause all the commercials i saw for it, said the same thing, and i was like its just hype, but i definitely agree.

[TROY]

Their were parts I loved, anything to do with Brittany; parts I liked, anything to do with Mike; and parts I hated, anything to do with Mercedes and Rachel. I have never liked Mercedes and she has just been doing the same lame ass character portrayal for the last 3 seasons so far. Rachel just showed what kind of a real selfish bitch she really is tonight. I thought the whole double casting thing was just piss poor writing at best, and saw it coming a mile away.

Brittany remains the best character on the show and her performance with all the ladies was outstanding. Mike's dance scene, his audition, and then the dance with his mom were the highlights of the show though. I am glad they finally let him have some well deserved screen time.

The stuff with Emma would have been more powerful had they not made such a lame ass joke with the "Ginger Parents" before hand, but it was still a nice moment between her and Will.

Glad I didn't have to sit through any of Sue's dumb stunts this episode, which is funny because I used to only watch for her but now she annoys the crap outta me.

[e_galston]

Well the double casting does happen in high schools though. My senior year musical we had one role played by 2 different girls. It was frustrating cause one girl knew what was going on and voices meshed well, the other one was trying to be the star of everything (though he character wasn't even the main character). So its not unheard of. And it makes sense seeing who the directors are.

[Kolimar]

Good review.

[rdrsfn82]

Why is no one irritated by the "Asian F" thing? I mean, it's such a bullshit racist stereotype. If there was an episode focused on Mercedes not being able to swim because she's black, people would be upset. But I guess since it's a kind of positive and accepted racist thing that's OK. Every time they used that phrase, it pissed me off.

Other than that, the stuff with Mike was all good and had actual emotion and growth for a character that's been wildly underutilized from the start dealing with an issue that makes a ton of sense for him (he is so involved in so many activities it makes sense he'd get a bit burned out and not have enough time). Plus, I just love watching that guy dance.

The Mercedes vs Rachel stuff was just a rehash of what came before with the episode last season where they covered the exact same stuff and had her quit the team. Plus, she can't dance but no one points out that to star in the musical she needs to dance. Mercedes is just a bad character that generally irritates me, and just about every time she's had a lead storyline it's been irritating.

Kurt reacting to Blaine the way he did was how it should have ended last week. His pouting at the end of the episode (and the judges being really mean for no reason and laughing at him) were really out of character, so I'm glad they fixed that. Even if the male lead should have been Puck and the female lead should have been Santana, but whatever.

I'm glad there wasn't any of the Sue stuff, because that storyline just makes me more angry each week. Instead we got some Will and Emma stuff that was OK. Her awful parents were like reverse Cartman, but that was kind of OK because it set up a chance to Will to stand up and show a backbone, which is always nice.

Brittany continues to be the best character on the show, and I would not be shocked if she becomes the new Anna Farris once she leaves. She has amazing comedic timing, and is just ridiculously entertaining. I would not be shocked at all if 10 years from now she is by far the biggest star to come from this show.

The student council president stuff seems kind of annoying, but not anymore than any other show where they pretend it's actually an important thing that people care about. It's just a TV/movie thing that is used all the time and you just have to accept, even though student council president has no power anywhere and is really just meaningless.

Anyways, as usual it was an episode that leaves me conflicted, enjoying and hating it in equal parts. Hopefully when they come back Kurt's dad will be a big part of the show, and we'll continue the stuff with Puck (one of the few characters to really grow since the start of the show without falling backwards all the time).

[Rockman]

I agree with rdrs..

I hated the whole Asian F thing, it is such a blatant stereotype. Mike Chang is a good character though.

The Will and Emma stuff was okay.

As for Will and Glee club, well his behavior so far this year has been entirely too confrontational when working with teenagers. The whole Mercedes blowing up thing should have been handled differently by an authority, but he's on his whole tough love kick which is stupid.

Mercedes is the most annoying of all. Her whole diva schtick was her main character trait in season 1, then they had another episode dealing with it last year (where she refused to come out of her trailer or some nonsense). If this was all done to get her to the new glee club, then good but they didn't have to be shallow about it.

[CausticLibrarian]

Why is no one irritated by the "Asian F" thing? I mean, it's such a bullshit racist stereotype. If there was an episode focused on Mercedes not being able to swim because she's black, people would be upset. But I guess since it's a kind of positive and accepted racist thing that's OK. Every time they used that phrase, it pissed me off.

I felt like it was a little racist myself at first so I decided to ask my brother who was adopted from South Korea when he was a baby and is currently a junior in chemical engineering at the local university. So I asked him if saying an A- is an "Asian F" was racist in his opinion and he texted back "Hahaha that's hilarious! What can I say, we hold ourselves to high standards lol." Now he's pretty laid back (and also gets really good grades) so I know he doesn't speak for all Asians, but I'm not going to worry about it if he thinks it's funny.

[ThatGuyRoman]

I thought I was done with Glee, but it keeps pulling me back in.


This episode was a tad heavy-handed but that's Glee in a nutshell. I was enjoying myself right up until the bad cover of my least favorite Coldplay song (when not sung by Coldplay.)

[rdrsfn82]

Just because he found it humorous doesn't mean it's not racist. I mean, the whole porch monkey thing in Clerks II is fucking hilarious and super super racist.

[CausticLibrarian]

Just because he found it humorous doesn't mean it's not racist. I mean, the whole porch monkey thing in Clerks II is fucking hilarious and super super racist.

Very true. I just thought before we all got up in arms against the Glee writers I'd throw it out there that at least one Asian thought it was funny and not racist in his opinion.

Also, getting back to the episode itself, I loved the Dream Girls scene with Mercedes taking on the Effie role. Really well done. The diva thing is getting a bit out of hand but I love Mercedes and Santana's voices so if next episode they get more solos with Shelby's team I'm all for it.

[avengingtitan]

Why is no one irritated by the "Asian F" thing? I mean, it's such a bullshit racist stereotype. If there was an episode focused on Mercedes not being able to swim because she's black, people would be upset. But I guess since it's a kind of positive and accepted racist thing that's OK. Every time they used that phrase, it pissed me off.

Other than that, the stuff with Mike was all good and had actual emotion and growth for a character that's been wildly underutilized from the start dealing with an issue that makes a ton of sense for him (he is so involved in so many activities it makes sense he'd get a bit burned out and not have enough time). Plus, I just love watching that guy dance.

The Mercedes vs Rachel stuff was just a rehash of what came before with the episode last season where they covered the exact same stuff and had her quit the team. Plus, she can't dance but no one points out that to star in the musical she needs to dance. Mercedes is just a bad character that generally irritates me, and just about every time she's had a lead storyline it's been irritating.

Kurt reacting to Blaine the way he did was how it should have ended last week. His pouting at the end of the episode (and the judges being really mean for no reason and laughing at him) were really out of character, so I'm glad they fixed that. Even if the male lead should have been Puck and the female lead should have been Santana, but whatever.

I'm glad there wasn't any of the Sue stuff, because that storyline just makes me more angry each week. Instead we got some Will and Emma stuff that was OK. Her awful parents were like reverse Cartman, but that was kind of OK because it set up a chance to Will to stand up and show a backbone, which is always nice.

Brittany continues to be the best character on the show, and I would not be shocked if she becomes the new Anna Farris once she leaves. She has amazing comedic timing, and is just ridiculously entertaining. I would not be shocked at all if 10 years from now she is by far the biggest star to come from this show.

The student council president stuff seems kind of annoying, but not anymore than any other show where they pretend it's actually an important thing that people care about. It's just a TV/movie thing that is used all the time and you just have to accept, even though student council president has no power anywhere and is really just meaningless.

Anyways, as usual it was an episode that leaves me conflicted, enjoying and hating it in equal parts. Hopefully when they come back Kurt's dad will be a big part of the show, and we'll continue the stuff with Puck (one of the few characters to really grow since the start of the show without falling backwards all the time).

I look at it this way as long as its funny and not meant in a negative way its okay. I think most people would agree with that.

Watching someone dance without music is just weird looking but it was still a great scene. I love this episode, it could be the best one yet. Sue was even dancing in the stands at one point.