The Gleecap: “Asian F”

The Gleecap is a brand new column dedicated to recap and review the zany antics that occur in each episode of the television show Glee. Blog posts will be released each Wednesday following an episode. Beware, there will be spoilers.

Story Overview

In this week’s episode of Glee, we learn that Rachel’s ruthless ambition supersedes friendship, Emma and Will have a weird relationship, and Asian-stereotype jokes are out in full force.

Oh wait, isn’t that every episode?

In sticking to a familiar Glee formula, “Asian F” carts out the biggest and most consistent source of drama to ever hit New Directions. The Diva-Off. In fact, it’s carted out twice.

In this corner, we have Rachel Berry vs. Mercedes Jones fighting over the part of Maria in McKinley’s production of West Side Story.

Thanks to a pep-talk from her boyfriend Shane, Mercedes reignites her inner diva fire and delivers a powerful audition in her bid for Maria. The Unshakable Rachel finds herself on wavering ground when news breaks that she is to compete against Mercedes in a call-back audition. The girls duke it out and, at the conclusion of the song, Rachel confides to Finn that Mercedes did better than her.

Still stuck at an impasse, Artie, Coach Beiste, and Emma decide to add another week in order to double-cast Rachel and Mercedes as Maria for multiple shows. Apparently McKinley’s schedule revolves around the New Directions kids.

Mercedes, now driven mad with Diva Rabies, refuses their offer and joins Shelby Corcoran’s new glee club in protest.

The smaller Diva-Off occurs between Kurt and Brittany. Kurt, harassing people in the hallway harder than the Red Cross does to students on Comm. Ave., believes his election is in the bag. That is, until Brittany unites every female at McKinley under her banner through a colossal Beyonce flash mob.

The final major story line this episode, shockingly, has nothing to with a Diva-Off. In fact, it’s quite humble. Mike Chang, after receiving an “Asian F” (an “A-” for us not hip on lingo), finds himself being bullied out of performance arts by his father. Small, intermittent pieces of the episode are dedicated to watching Mike struggle between his family and his heart.

Then his mother enters the picture. In a touching parent-child move reminiscent of many Kurt-Burt moments, Mrs. Chang explains that she fully supports him in his dreams. Then he proceeds to help her move to her long-lost dream. Mike teaches her how to dance.

Characters

Preface – I am tired of the Glee writers not knowing how to make characters complex. It is possible to make characters flawed without having a character turn into an unrelatable Disney villain. The audience can be annoyed with characters from time to time, but there shouldn’t be feelings verging on hatred. There doesn’t need to be a Villain Quinn each week.

Rachel – Remember when Kurt and Rachel were supporting each other in their endeavors to go to New York just two episodes ago? Remember how touching that was? Well, it’s gone. Rachel, after successfully scoring the role of Maria, seeks to ruin Kurt’s Class President dreams in favor of helping herself.

Welcome back, Rachel Who Does Not Elicit Much Sympathy. I knew you weren’t gone for long.

Mercedes – I am elated that Mercedes seems to be getting a story line that A) does not involve tater tots and B) might extend past one episode. I am not, however, elated that Mercedes has turned into a psycho, self-obsessed Naomi Campbell (that might have been redundant). In many ways, Mercedes is justified. Even Rachel admitted that Mercedes’ audition was better. I’m not even against her leaving New Directions. Her over-the-top attitude, however, is just uncharacteristic.

Mike – This story line, like Mike himself, was humble, subtle and not diva-licious. It did not stir up drama with other characters. It did not leave a wild cliff-hanger. It ended with a mother and son dancing together. Glee needs to pay attention to the minor characters, and handling them in a manner like this is a very smart idea.

And no one hated Mike at the end of this episode.

Will – For as long as Will Schuester does creepy, skeezy things like trying to show off his porn collection to Emma, I will never take this character seriously. His anger when talking to adults and students alike also reads too much like a homicidal rage-o-holic.

Continuity

The Glee writers remembered that Tina parades around as a vampire and that she once had a stutter! Although I am thrown off about why Mike referenced the stutter. His first lines in Season One didn’t come until way after Tina’s stutter story line was over.

I also really need to quit giving bonus points for the writers remembering their own show. It’s just that Season Two didn’t shape up too well in that department.

In the negative area, I am terribly confused as to why Santana was ever kicked out of New Directions two episodes ago. She’s back again for no apparent reason. Was there a point to that storyline?

Songs

“Spotlight” by Jennifer Hudson: Not only is it great to hear Mercedes’ voice again, but it’s nice to see it with a semi-recognizable song. Her performance was heavy in emotion and it didn’t need an over-powered belt-out at the end to make an impact.

“Run the World (Girls)” by Beyonce: I hate the original version of this song. The screechy, stock club-dance noise in the background is far too annoying for song to be taken seriously. Fortunately, removing that tidbit makes the song much easier to listen to. Brittany’s vocals were adequate for the song, her dance moves were entertaining, and her sass brought the performance together.

“Cool” from West Side Story: If that truly is Harry Shum Jr.’s voice, then I’m impressed. The song choice took enough allowances for Mike’s smooth, soft singing ability to shine. And it worked. The acting and dancing enhanced the performance as well.

“It’s All Over” from Dreamgirls: This song was not meant to be a vocal performance, it was meant to be a comedic, relevant performance. This seems to be a new trend in Season Three, and I approve. Watching Mercedes insinuate something between Finn and Kurt produced a hearty chuckle out of me.

“Out Here On My Own” from Fame: Both girls had talented vocals as usual, but Mercedes’ genuine disappointment and emotion stole this battle from Rachel easily. Miss Berry can make all of the dramatic faces she wants, but it cannot compare to her competitor’s heartfelt performance.

“Fix You” by Coldplay: This might be the first and only song I like from one Mr. Will Schuester. The cover was very extraordinarily similar to the original version, but it worked since the original version is amazing. The corny, wear-all-white ensemble ending fit the song and Glee very well.

One-Liners

“Excuse me from gym class all year or I’ll drink all of your spicy, curry blood.” – Tina Cohen-Chang

“You think Wonder Woman hugs the Cheetah before an Amazonian smackdown?” – Shane

“You’re okay with flushing McKinley’s future down the magical poop-stealing water chair?” – Brittany S. Pierce

“When I see you dance, it’s why I fell in love with you.” – Ghost Tina Cohen-Chang

“You always ‘zig’ when I think you’re about to ‘zag’ and I love that about you.” – Blaine Anderson

Overall Score

If I was grading this episode purely on the Mike Chang storyline and the musical contents, this would be an easy A. Unfortunately, there was far too much character demonizing (not characterization) done in this episode. I’m fairly sure the promo video for next week had Quinn trying to murder her child (I think I’m kidding?).

The Glee writers need to handle these characters consistently better.

“Asian F:”  B