Frazier Moore

The primetime Emmys, bestowed for 66 years, are meant to celebrate excellence in television. But in Emmy’s eyes, excellence too often takes the form of stamina, not the burst of inspiration that may have launched a series and its characters many seasons earlier and since settled into routine. Too often, Emmy celebrates not excellence, but an excellently maintained status quo.

I find Washington’s latest brawl — House GOP members wanting to sue President Obama — to be inspiring. While the TV universe hardly compares to affairs of state, I’m moved to sue a few people myself (or think about it, anyway).

Frazier Moore: “I find TV shows fall into two categories: Some — like Scandal, Game of Thrones or a sprightly comedy or probing documentary — deserve my full concentration. Other shows, the sort that fit the classic description of TV as “chewing gum for the mind,” I greet as a chance to zone out. In the former category, the second screen becomes an unwanted distraction. In the latter case, I just want to veg. To gaze, not engage.”