Easy

Courtesy of Random Thoughts and by way of Buffalo Pundit, my 5 Favorite TV Shows Ever:

1) Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The best narrative television series in the history of television. It was around the middle of the second season when I noticed that something funny was going on with this surprisingly well written show, and it followed through on it magnificently through 7 seasons to create a remarkably complete and whole television series. What the X-Files should have been before the cash capsized the artistic boat.

2) The X-Files. Dry, dense, scary, smart. Until it overstayed it's welcome and Chris Carter sold out (and lost Ducovny, who now regrets it) and thus spun off into well intentioned silliness, it was an excellent show, a real zeitgeist definer for the roaring yet wacky 90's.

3) The Simpsons. The Ultimate American Satire.

4) The Sopranos. Twin Peaks lost it's thread way too soon. The Sopranos hasn't come close to losing it, no matter what ANYBODY says. The TV series as art.

5) Picket Fences. David Kelley's small town as crucible for MODERN AMERICA fairy tale. When it was good it was mind bendingly brilliant. Poignant. True.