“Reagan’s entire approach was somehow or other — almost the deep structure of the universe itself — that the underlying reality is good,” said Robinson, the former Reagan speechwriter who is now a policy fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institute.

Some already exist: large-scale geological maps based on decades of fieldwork, and surveys of the deep structure of rock formations based on the reflections of seismic waves from artificial or natural earthquakes.

He understood the deep structure of the genre, the various story beats that pushed a couple from meet cute to final clinch.

Safran describes the show’s deep structure as a comedy of manners.

In making “Kevin,” Armstrong and Craig DiGregorio, the showrunner, wanted to bare this deep structure without belittling or parodying the form of the multicam itself.