I look at each episode in two ways - from a design standpoint and from an entertainment standpoint - this is TV, after all. We usually succeed on at least one of the levels.

The remark frames television writing/production as a balancing act between structural craft (“design”: plotting, pacing, thematic architecture, season arcs) and immediate viewer pleasure (“entertainment”: humor, suspense, spectacle, emotional payoff). By insisting “this is TV, after all,” Wilson underscores the medium’s commercial and popular mandate: even elegant construction fails if it doesn’t play engagingly in the moment. The wry admission—“We usually succeed on at least one of the levels”—suggests humility about the difficulty of achieving both simultaneously, while also implying a pragmatic standard of success: an episode can justify itself either by satisfying narrative design or by delivering compelling entertainment, ideally both.