Why yes, Virginia, I do plan to reuse this graphic every time I write about this show.

Glee has honestly been a little patchy, for me, since its stellar pilot and the equally stellar season opener.  It’s never been less than enjoyable, but there were a couple of weeks there – episodes 3 and 4, to be precise – where I found myself wondering what I had been so excited about.  I’m happy to say that with the most recent episode, the trend has reversed.  And I’m even happier to say that I think I’ve figured out why, because otherwise I don’t know what I would write about this week.  Episode six brought back an element of the pilot that they maintained in episode two, let slide in episodes three and four, and hopefully will never let slide again:  the epic voice.

Voice in this context has nothing to do with the show’s music, which has been consistently fantastic all along.  I’m using it here to describe a certain kind of writing.  Basically when you sit down to tell someone a story, you have two options.  Either you can try to present the story as events that are actually happening, while trying to make yourself as invisible as possible, or you can call as much attention to yourself as possible, while giving up on any attempt to convince people that story is actually taking place.  The first of these techniques is dramatic.  The second is epic.