Glee has been on a roll this season (I got shivers during this week’s “Somewhere” duet with Idina Menzel and Lea Michele), but next week’s installment, “Asian F,” is must-watch viewing for any Glee fan. I was lucky enough to get to screen the episode in advance, and Gleeks will be thrilled to know it’s one of the series’ best episodes ever. Moving, funny, and exhilarating — it’s all the things that made Glee so great in the first place.
“Asian F” focuses mostly on Mike Chang (Harry Shum Jr.) and Mercedes (Amber Riley), two characters who finally get a rich showcase. Mike gets an A- on a test (an “Asian F”) and his father becomes worried that glee club and Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz) are a distraction. Meanwhile, Mercedes and Rachel (Lea Michele) battle it out for the role of Maria in West Side Story. I don’t want to spoil too much of the episode but it’s chock full of amazing numbers, including Brittany (Heather Morris)’s rollicking version of Beyonce’s “(Girls) Run the World.” The episode also features covers of Jennifer Hudson’s “Spotlight” and Coldplay’s “Fix You,” alongside some truly moving moments (not only do we meet Mike’s mother and father, but also Emma’s parents).
If, by chance, you’re not watching Glee this year (or maybe have never watched it), “Asian F” is a good reason to tune in.
Follow Tim on Twitter: @EWTimStack
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Does Tina sing in this episode?
Nope, Mike does twice.
Ya don’t say!
No Tina, no Finn….lots of Kurt and Rachel….again!
No, there’s lots of Mercedes…Kurt’s only got one tiny part in “It’s All Over.” Love him, but glad they’re taking a break from him.
I was hoping Mike and Tina would have a sweet duet…At least they’re going to have a wonderful dance scene?
Join the WTF campaign: Where’s The Finn! You wouldn’t have thought a 6.3 male lead could disappear so efectively. Its not the same without him. Whatever the faults of the writing last season you can’t blame Cory or his acting..
Show Cory Monteith we miss him. #1Milion4Cory by following @CoryMonteith
Love Heather Morris, very attractive and sexy.
I don’t know….Heather Morris doing all the quick wordplay in the Beyonce song sounds like a recipe for disaster.
Heather did an amazing job at Britney’s “Me Against The Music” which goes just as fast as Run The World. I think she’s going to do an incredible job!
If you google “Glee Wikia” and click episodes and then scroll down to the “Asian F” episode on the bottom of THAT page is the full song…that or you can probably just look it up on YouTube (can I mention them here?) all the songs are usually out by Friday so you can def judge for yourself.
I don’t care how annoying this makes me, but I just want to hear about the Kurt and Blaine flower scene.
I really hope this episode lives up to the hype!
very annoying…like me
… am not sure whether things can be mend with flowers though…
flower scene? what flower scene? did I miss something?
Every tv site is saying this about Asian F. It really must be great, my expectations are gonna be high!
Yeah, that is indeed the danger… we may all fall hard… Fingers crossed.
Can’t wait to watch it the next day on Hulu.
Oh, wait. . . .
This.
This squared. Thanks, Fox! The only way I can watch it online is if I have a cable or satellite account? Why do you think I’m watching online in the first place???
there are so many websites to watch GLEE on, just google “watch glee online free” and pick any of the top 5 sites, you obviously don’t really want to watch the show lol
@District12…. no site ever puts up glee episodes so soon after they’ve been aired. Especially when Fox is going all nazi on the viewers and limiting whos worthy and whos unworthy for watching glee. usually you have to wait a while. Clearly you don’t really want to watch Glee if you didn’t try hard enough to realize this…
sidereel has them up the very next morning.
Could you imagine a world without Glee?
If only…
You will only notice the effect of Glee 20 years later, when the teenage-gleeks of today have become parents themselves and start complaining that there are not enough showtunes on TV… Joking…
Well, the bar is pretty low at this point!
In retrospect, it was never very high to begin with.
i love this song too now but for different reosans the great Peter Mak introduced us to this song last FEC as the song that he played every time he started to hit walls building the business it was the song that propelled him to Diamond. It is one of my most played songs now on the pod ah, Macca groupie that I amHappy songs Walkin’ on Sunshine gets a big vote from me and also Doobie brothers stuff um, just how old am I?XXX
Asian is such a broad term. Education is very important to specific groups of Asians, not all!
wtf?
It’s true!
Lisa Glassberg takes sh!ts at work,
For instance, cambodians wouldnt flip out over an A- the way a Chinese would bc cambodians r typically struggling n worried abt putting food on the table!
Uh lisa! Why don’t you report being harrassed? You have the right to comment on here without that IDIOT “following” you!
Thx Amy. It’s ok.
Richard Christie is following me!
Lisa G is muh favorite
Not taco tico?
Those legs are not very flattering.
Yesssss I am so glad Mike is getting screentime this season!
It had better be a good ep – I was ready to give up on the show after the last two weeks of boredom.
I miss Finn!! Sat through just waiting to see Cory Monteith!
Follow him at @CoryMonteth and show Ryan Murphy we don’t want to lose our adorable dancer.
I miss Finn on Glee. We haven’t seen much of him during the last two episodes, and it seems he isn’t featured much in this episode. I wonder if Finn will ever have a separate plot away from the Finchel this season. Does Ryan Murphy realize how he is wasting one of their best actors? He was underserved last season by being made a foil for Murphy’s PSA character (not a diss on Chris’s acting ability btw) and just given crap love triangle storylines. I hope he’s not being sidelined from the start of the season. I’m waiting anxiously for his storyline to be picked up.
And I’m not complaining about characters like Mike and Mercedes getting screentime. No, they fully deserve it, I just miss Finn because I’m so used to seeing him more when I watch Glee. I just feel a big part is missing that’s all.
I don’t think that Finn was underserved last year… They just changed him into a more unlikable character after the superbowl…Annoying for me , but candy for the actor Cory, so that he can show his range.. he can play the dumb, nice jock AND the “not -so-nice jock”… so this will be good for Cory’s career AFTER Glee…
And as a Kurt fan, I adore, i repeat, I adore the interactions between Kurt and Finn, especially in Season 2. (even more than Kurt and Blaine)… That was a major arc that lasts 2 seasons !
What I like about Finn this time is that his character has become very relatable… not knowing where to go, working at his stepfather’s garage… so back to Mr Nice Guy ? Or not ? Hope there is more showdown between Finn and Blaine and maybe … Sam (Glee Project ?) .. Finn and Puck etc.. Hope Finchel is only stirred up by Rachel’s ambition… Am a bit tired of all those love triangles… Finchel on itself is already good for lots of fun and drama.
Finn has just become one half of Finchel with the mereest hint of development by himself . Monteith is such a fantastic TV actor and gets overshadowed by some more hammy stuff but he grounds this series when it needs the heartelft stuff…and by goodness so far this season has lacked any realness. We need Finn back.
One of the shows best episodes ever?
So it’s one of the best episodes since about 30+ episodes ago?
Rachel and Mercedes but heads over a lead part. I always wondered why this series never pitted those two against each other yet!
This is sure to bring a fresh twist to glee, unlike anything they’ve done before. Maybe they will fight, and at the end realise they are both talented and respect each other more.
Also, hopefully they have some more kurt, he is terribly underutilized
I hope that last sentence was a joke, b/c all last season was basically “The Kurt Show”…..
No, he is underutilized in some ways. We’ve definitely had enough of him crying (Chris is great, but I’m over it), but they do seem to have forgotten what a good supporting comedic actor he can be. I miss his snarky one-liners in S1 in the middle of other actors’ major scenes. It would be nice if they did more of that with him.
I really hope you’re being sarcastic.. and I think you are.. but just in case you aren’t, they’ve done this plotline OVER and OVER!!
how could anyone not know this is sarcasm?
Santana is not in the Glee club… and neither is Lindsay (Glee project)… Quinn… no comments… Brittany is busy with her campaign… and seems that they have not added a female soprano/belter to the mix..So, no choice,.. back to basics : Mercedes versus Rachel…
They’re still featuring Santana.
Lindsay has a 2 episode deal, no more. Putting her in the glee club means we’d have to see of her.
Quinn will be competing later
Brittany has a storyline outside of the glee club.
Suck it up, princess, or don’t watch the show.
Are you implying that the only possible storyline the characters Rachel and Mercedes are capable of having is a diva-off? I can’t even. Don’t ever become a writer, I beg you. I’m saying this because I care.
Got the sarcasm but don’t blame Kurt. Blame the writers. They couldn’t think of ANY plot lines for the other characters?
This was hilarious, and very clearly sarcasm.
Rebecca and Sammy, you’re both idiots.