Glee: American A-

Asian F

Asian F is getting a lot of positive buzz today and for good reason. Arguably one of the shows best episodes in a long time, the show finally delivered this season on Ryan Murphy's promise to focus on character development, especially on some the shows tragically underused talent. Although Mercedes did not get the part of Maria in West Side Story, Amber Riley finally took on the role of female lead for an episode. Riley was incredible but the writers somehow felt the need to trash her character in order to spotlight it. I could be wrong but I don't remember even a hint of anything in the past to indicate Mercedes was not a hard worker or lazy. Making the 'big' girl fat and lazy was a little lazy on behalf of the writers. I will move quickly past it though as it pushed the story to a place Amber could shine. I moan in almost every Glee post the loss of Chord Overstreet, but every scene with Mercedes new boyfriend makes his absence that much sadder.



Jayma Mays and Emma have always been a favorite of mine and for two years besides a couple of moments in season one the character has almost not existed on the Glee Canvas. I hope this week marks the end of this. Ginger Supremacists, brilliant, Mays painful reaction to them, priceless! The only downfall to Emma's storyline is that lately Will has been written as such an ass their finally coming together has lost some of the payoff it might have had.

Boy Boy Crazy Boy!


Obviously the MVP of Asian F is Harry Shum Jr. I have LOVED Harry since I first saw him in Preggars and featured a profile of Harry shortly after. We all knew he could dance and finally the show allowed him to shine. It is a testament to good writing (Ian Brennan) and directing (Alfonso Gomez-Rejón) that a long term character can surprise. Harry's venerability was not out of character, yet, a complete surprise. Kudos for finally giving someone other than Kurt and Finn, conflict with a parent. It is as much apart of high school as cheer leading and Glee club.



Now... Glee just has that same pesky problem that it often encounters, following up brilliance with crap. There is a reason people (like moi) who love this show are so critical. The show is off the schedule for three weeks so we will see if the November return brings more Asian F's or more countless scenes of Rachel and Kurt belting Barbara...

Below: Harry Shum Jr. photographed for DAMAN magazine by Mitchell Nguyen McCormack.

P.S: If Darren Criss is off making a movie, write Blaine off visiting a relative, even though I love and would have missed him, his obvious pre-shot scenes were too obvious and for me kept halting the flow.