I hate the NBC promo monkeys

So I was all geared up to watch the episode "Requiem" of West Wing on Sunday night. According to the promos for the episode it was going to be an entire ep dedicated to the life and passing of one of the most central characters, Leo.

Yeah, not so much.

It was a beautiful teaser, with the six core characters, CJ, Toby, Josh, Donna, the president and first lady all preparing to go to the funeral, and then at the funeral we hear the liturgy and pan over almost all of the characters who have been affected by Leo. That was lovely. Cut to credits.

Then, we get about a third of the remaining episode including reminiscences about him (much of which, interestingly enough, I think was actually John Spencer memories that they were bringing up, b/c they were new to us and sounded more like things he'd do and not Leo), but the rest was about CJ and Danny, Donna and Josh, and the SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE. Almost ten minutes of what should have been an entirely Leo-centric episode spent on who would be the new SOH. So. Disappointing. We don't need three new tertiary characters introduced, writers, and we sure as hell don't need to spend ten minutes on them, kay? We've got four fucking episodes left. God.

If I'd been prepared to expect an episode that in part dealt with the death of Leo, but the rest of which was business as usual, I probably could have enjoyed the episode more -- especially the stuff with CJ and Danny and getting to see Amy (ever-fabulous Mary Louise Parker) stir things up one last time with Josh and Donna. But because of those damned promo monkeys, all I could think during those scenes was "get back to the Leo stuff, get back to LEO."

So, in place of what this episode could have been:
Noel
Bartlet for America
Crackpots and These Women
He Shall from Time to Time
Running Mates
Guns Not Butter

And from the pilot:
Donna: And what was the cause of the accident?
Leo: What are you, from State Farm? Go. Do a job, would ya?
Donna: I’m just...
Leo: He was swerving to avoid a tree.
Donna: And what happened?
Leo: He was unsuccessful.