Anatomy of true love

According to the critics, love is a many-splendored thing anywhere but on TV.  While shows love to talk about romance and passion, they don’t seem to truly understand love.

At least, not the long term kind.

Writers excel at creating sexual tension and titillation.

Some of TV’s greatest super couples include Sam and Diane (Cheers), Ross and Rachel (Friends), David and Maddie (Moonlighting), Luke and Laura (General Hospital), and Blake and Krystle (Dynasty).

These were the kinds of hot and sexy relationships we wanted in our own lives.

But why?

We watched them fall in lust, then “in love,” break up, make up and endure months of torture due to outside forces plotting against them.

Who needs this kind of stress?

However, in recent months, I’ve discovered that true love is built on good Bones.

At first, the relationship between Dr. Temperance ¬“Bon¬es” Brennan and Seeley Booth appears to be your typical opposites attract. 
Once they stopped annoying each other, a rock solid friendship was formed.

Given Brennan’s social clumsiness (she doesn’t trust feelings or understand nuances) and Booth’s personal demons (he was abused by a drunken father ), it’s taken years to understand, accept and support one another. 

Beyond a kiss or two, the relationship never went beyond friendship for fear of losing a connection that meant more than any other in their lives. 

Then, in a moment of despair at the death of a co-worker, Booth and Brennan turned to each other. And still, we did not see it.  Literally.

The writers didn’t give us so much as a smooch. While we waited and wondered, Brennan announced she was pregnant and Booth smiled. 

And again, nothing – until months later, when she was big with baby and they were figuring out finances and living arrangements. 

The timing was due to the real-life pregnancy of actress Emily Deschanel. But the writers had options. 

And they have simply done everything wrong – that is, according to the rules on how to keep sexual tension alive on TV. 

Instead of focusing on the heat and sex of a new relationship, writers have concentrated on the joining of the couple’s personal lives and independent natures. 

Even now, with the arrival of baby Christine, Brennan, who’s always seen the world on a purely theoretical and factual level, is discovering the depth of her emotional ties to her daughter. 

So rather than sending her to TV daycare-land so we can focus on her hot, sexy parents getting romantic again, writers are letting our beloved couple grow and change with every gurgle and coo. 

And fans are loving it!

It’s a TV miracle. By breaking all the rules, they’ve finally discovered what we’ve always known – that watching a relationship deepen and mature is more fun than the chase.

And isn’t that the kind of love we’re all after?