Right, here are the 5 best tv shows ever, of the last 10 years. I figured 10 years was a good cut off date, so these shows didn't have to compete with the likes of Sanford and Son or Crazy Far Out Space Nuts. They'll get their own list. Again, no particular order to this list, they are just all the best tv shows ever.

1. The Simpsons: Yes, an obvious choice--The Simpsons is clearly the best sitcom ever created. Yeah, it has been rather spotty for the last few seasons, but you can't really go wrong with episodes like Citizen Kang ("President Clin-Tone!") and the magnum opus of all Simpsons episodes, the one where Homer becomes union king pin ("Goons. Hired goons."). I have great hope for this upcoming season, as there is going to be an episode including Patrick McGoohan, of The Prisoner fame (also one of the best tv shows ever).

2. The X-Files: Again, this show has been spiraling rapidly out of control for the past few seasons (Mulder is psychic Jesus? Abducted by aliens? Aaah! The bees!), but the first 3 or 4 seasons produced some of the coolest hours of tv ever (Ice, One Breath, Anasazi, Jose Chung's From Outer Space), and even now, it still cranks out episodes like Je Souhaite (the one with the Geenie) occasionally. It definitely could have taken lessons from the producer of the next show on the list in terms of continuity and well developed plot arcs, but hey, what are you gonna do?

3. Babylon 5: Ok, the fist season was kind of like low grade Star Trek some of the time, and the 5th season spent much of its time sucking, but the vast majority of this show was simply brilliant. Very well developed character arcs, plot threads that were set up in the first episode that paid off years later, a consistent story line that carried the show from beginning to end, layer upon layer of parallel story lines, amazing space battle sequences, and non stop clever referencing to film and literature. The best episodes (The Coming of Shadows, The Long Twilight Struggle, Point of No Return, The Long Night ) are absolute genius. It was criminal that the show was given the axe on syndication near the end of its 4th season (when it was, from day one, planned as a 5 season story), so all the story threads were rapidly tied up at the end of season 4, and then resurrected for a 5th season on TNT, after the story had been finished. Still, absolutely worth watching from beginning to end (although don't feel like a bad person if you skip some of the season 5 telepath episodes...)

4. My So Called Life: The show that opened up the door for the likes of countless trashy teen angst dramas (that pale in comparison), but was sadly so ahead of its time that it was killed off before it even got started. It ended on a high note, however, so we can always remember it fondly (unlike the apparent fate of The X-Files). So many well developed, layered stories that were pretty much dead on life as a teenager. Great, subtle acting. Brian Krakow's hair. Yeah, ok, it had some real klunkers too (like both of the holiday theme episodes), but the vast bulk of the series is incredibly and compulsively viewable, the best of the bunch being The Life of Brian and Betrayals.

5. Buffy The Vampire Slayer: I'm constantly amazed by how many people poo-poo this show, thinking it is some sort of kiddie crap. I mean, if nothing else, it revolves around hot women in mini-skirts and boots kicking ass--what isn't to love? Far beyond the cosmetic appeal to the show, what you have is an incredibly consistently well written show that is both hysterical and tragic. It's first three seasons made great use of its central metaphor ("high school is hell") in brilliant episodes like The Pack, Prophecy Girl, Innocence, and Passion. This past 4th season was somewhat slipshod, as the series lost track of its main focus, but the good episodes from season 4 (Hush, Something Blue, What's My Line?) were as good as anything.