Here is a re-post from Votaries. I also reference the show below.
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I'm a Scarecrow & Mrs. King fan. I was a fan when young, and I still find the show completely viewable.
Rewatching Season 1 recently, I formed the opinion that my attraction to the show is that it is incipient Bones. That is probably why I loved it as a youngster except Bones hadn't shown up yet. Now that Bones has shown up, I see the similarities.
1. It's all about the couple.
I've commented elsewhere that I like romances where the hero and heroine are trapped together--literally or, like Mulder and Scully, through a job/shared information. Both Bones and Scarecrow are all about the main couple--nobody else, really. Consummated or not, the show IS the relationship.
2. Both parties bring something to the relationship.
Both the hero and heroine contribute to the relationship as individuals. Amanda King is quirky, talkative, funny with a strong practical streak and a strong moral code. Rather surprising for an 80's show, her responses as an individual take precedent over her responses as an INDEPENDENT WOMAN and even as a MOTHER. Good writers, in my view, ask, "How would this character react?" rather than "What particular cause am I supposed to be defending?" It is easy to take the former approach for granted with Temperance Brennan. It is commendable that it happened with Mrs. King.
3. The guys get to rescue the gals.
What's a good romance without a rescue?
The classic done-correctly rescue scene is Cary Grant rescuing Ingrid Bergman in Notorious: the scene where Cary Grant enters the house of the bad spy guy and carries out Ingrid Bergman in front of the bad spy guy's compatriots. Every director over the age of forty copies it at least once, including in Scarecrow & Mrs King.
It is perfect because the heroine needs to be rescued for perfectly legitimate reasons. She isn't stuck in the bad-spy house by accident or because she is a fool or because she got into a pique or because she's trying to manipulate the hero or because she swooned or because she's too ladylike/dainty/frightened/clueless/triggered to get herself out. She's in the house as a spy following the directives of her handler in order to help the United States. She is being drugged against her will, and she has held out for as long as she can.
The hero rescues her against logic but not against reason. He loves her. He also owes her. And he is very clever and logical and ruthless about what he does to get her out.
Dorothy Sayers wrote several mysteries where she tackles the problem of a heroine feeling such an overwhelming sense of obligation to the hero that the relationship can't return to balance. The heroine becomes infantilized, a little girl who is endlessly being protected by her daddy-figure.
Good rescues avoid this. Notorious avoids this.
Bones and Scarecrow avoid this.
Bones has a great rescue scene in the first season ("Two Bodies in the Lab") where the wounded Booth finds Bones who is about to be killed by a bad FBI guy masquerading as a serial killer. Bones is in this terrible situation because she is about to produce forensic evidence that will put the bad guy away. She fights back. Booth rescues her because it is his job and, (typical for Booth), he feels responsible for the people who work for him. And it is romantically done.
Yet nobody becomes a child as a result. Bones is grateful as is Amanda King, and they both express their gratitude non-defensively. But the relationship is easily restored to balance because the risks and rewards of the relationship are taken for granted.
4. I believe in the domestic side of the relationship.
This is actually something that separates Bones and Scarecrow from X-Files. In X-Files, the context is so overwhelmingly important, it's hard to imagine Mulder and Scully apart from it. Which is good--because how on earth would that relationship function absent a conspiracy? (The second movie doesn't really answer that question.)
But I can completely see Bones and Booth making things work in ANY situation: on a vacation, with a baby, buying a home, figuring out schools, planning date nights, managing money... Likewise, Bruce B. does a fairly good job in Scarecrow playing a man who thinks he wants to be a secret agent but really would rather have a semi-normal relationship with a down-to-earth housewife from Arlington. (See link above.)
Because in the end, the personal relationship isn't just about champagne and chocolates. It involves things like getting the vacuum cleaner to work. And wondering what the heck to do about the SRS light on the Honda dashboard. And fighting over the remote. And the number of television couples who I think can actually deal with this stuff is rather short.
Having extolled the importance of small, domestic duties...in terms of individual episodes...
5. The relationship is about the job.
Shows which focus exclusively on the relationship sans all else inevitably end up using "revolving door" plots: now-he-is-dating-someone-else, now-she-is-dating-someone-else, now-he-is-dating-someone-else.
Oh, who cares.
Shows where the relationship remains intact but the focus is on how much the characters love each other aren't much better. Dharma & Greg managed precisely because every episode was about other stuff (and it couldn't have lasted much beyond five seasons). Lois & Clark suffered in the second half of the third season into the fourth season when the relationship became the focus, rather than the job.
The most romantic romances aren't about the romance.
Go figure.
