I’m currently writing this the way Dan Harmon would have wanted it, and yeah, we’re all bummed, but let’s talk about the finale on Thursday that seems to be overshadowed by Sony and NBC’s skullduggery.

Those final moments were the closest TV has gotten to the last minute of the Friday Night Light finale “Always”* which itself was the closest network TV has gotten to The Wire’s finale. Harmon called it a bow to the audience, thanking them for watching the show all year.** And that’s what he did, but not just for the year, but the three years he was there. It definitely felt like he knew that his time was up, which is why he borrowed The Wire’s finale montage of using its theme song as the music. As has been noted on some sites about the return to the pilot (not unlike Arrested Development’s series finale), it really seemed like Dan Harmon knew he was gone and went out the way he wanted to.

I’m sad to see the show I cared about for 3 years go***, and it would be really easy to be mad at Sony and NBC, but I guess I’m Troy at the end of “Basic Rocket Science.” What kind of company would not only let someone write three paintball episodes, a Law and Order parody, a Goodfellas homage, a Pulp Fiction bait-and-switch to My Dinner with Andre, but actually give that person the money to make those episodes and air them? We were lucky to get 3 years, and there’s nothing anyone can do to take them away.

Actually. SHIT. Don’t read that last sentence, Sony/NBC. Don’t take them away from us. Please. You’ve given us enough panic attacks for 10 seasons of Breaking Bad.

*”Always” has the infamy of beating out Mad Men’s “The Suitcase” in the Emmy for Outstanding Writing for Drama. My take? “The Suitcase” is the better episode. Written, acted, as an overall piece of television. If you were to put ten episodes of television in a time capsule to exemplify television of the early 2000s, that’s on that list. But “Always” is a much finer example of what Friday Night Lights the show was about as a whole. And it makes this grown man cry more.

** It’s somewhere in this series. I really hope either Todd VanDerWerff interviewed Harmon before he was fired or he’s able to interview Harmon again for the third season because these are enlightening pieces into the writing mind and production process.

*** It can still be a good, maybe even a great show. The duo that are taking over also worked on Happy Endings, and that is a very fine show. But it won’t be Dan Harmon’s Community.

As you might have heard Sony (not NBC, NBC doesn’t own the show*) fired Dan Harmon off Community, which means the end of Community as we know it and probably the start of some half-assed 9th Season of Scrubs-like fourth season at worst, and a “Eh, it’s enjoyable to hang out with these people, I guess, but remember the first three seasons, man?” fourth season. So, you’re probably rewatching the series, like I am, and pouring one out for the fallen leader. So, here’s the rules (shots can be fingers of your drink, also):

• Jeff Winger speech- If it fails, take a shot. If it succeeds, two shots/half your drink.
• Abed says “Cool/Cool. Cool cool cool.” or Abed refers to life being like a TV show-take a shot.
• Britta is the worst- take a shot. If someone outside the group calls Britta the worst, take two shots.
• Annie gasps in shock or Awwws something- take a shot. Two shots if it’s in conjunction with Shirley doing the same thing.
• Shirley uses her sexy voice/mentions Jesus- take a shot. If both, take two shots.
• Pierce comically misses the point- take a shot.**
• Donald Glover one liner or Troy mishears/mispronounces a word- take a shot.
• Dean in a costume- take a shot. (Don’t start with “Paradigms of Human Memory”)
• 1st season only: Chang abuses his teaching powers, take a shot. 2nd and 3rd season: Chang uses his name as a pun, take a shot. Anyone else uses Chang’s name as a pun, two shots.
• You spot a movie reference/TV Trope before it’s said by name- two shots. After it’s said- one shot.
• Shipping moments: Trobed, Jean, Anbed, Jetta, Brinnie, Abetta, Jennie, Broy- one shot. Jerley, Cherly, Shierce, Channie’s Boobs- 2 shots. Aang (either Abed/Chang or Annie/Chang)-3 shots.

*Although NBC wasn’t really all that worked up about it, with Bob Greenblatt saying, “[S]hows lose showrunners all the time.” It’s not their fault that Dan Harmon was fired, but it’s kind of their fault that they didn’t renew the show with a clause that he’d still be on as showrunner (because why renew it in the first place anyway?).

**I guess you could also add “Pierce says something racist/homophobic” but hey, it’s your liver.