What Happened to The Game?

The Game, the Spin-Off from the TV Show Girlfriends, was the ground breaking show that was cancelled by The CW in 2009, and brought back by BET in 2011, debuting at 7.7 Million viewers.


Those faithful followers of The Game eagerly tuned in on January 11, 2011, but over time people became disappointed with the noticeable differences of the show. People no longer tune in with the same type of eagerness, and with last's night announced that the main characters, Tia Mowry and Pooch Hall leaving the show, it confirmed for people what everybody was quietly already thinking "The Game is Over." 


But where did this negative connotation with such a popular show come from? What happened to The Game?



There were way too many differences with BET's version of The Game. From the scenery, such as Derwin and Melanie's new lavish house, a step up from the apartment that they lived in on CW's version, to the cinematography; the darker, less clear picturing of The Game these days takes away from me. It makes it look like a bad play.

The Characters don't even have the same personalities as they did before. Melanie is a housewife who is not practicing medicine, something that she swore would never happen in CW's version; she also has a chip on her shoulder about not being able to conceive (another new twist that I hate) and Derwin lost his boyish, religious charm and traded it in for arrogance in the new seasons. the couple as a whole lost their whole naive vibe and have been going through some sort of problems for the majority of both BET seasons. The love isn't as evident as before.


Tasha is relatively the same, but they added a little more "ghetto" to her character, which is fine with me actually. Malik's materialistic world crashing down on him was bound to happen sooner or later, so this is fine as well. However, their cousin Tee-Tee, Malik's partner in crime, lost his on-cue funny remarks and traded it in for a more serious role. Not okay.


Jason is the only character that stayed completely true to the original, but this positive note gets overshadowed by the absence of his wife, Kelly (who was very pertinent to the show in my opinion, and even when she was still present her character was completely different. She lost the "All-American White Girl" vibe and traded it in for something more spunky and rude.) and his random, unnecessary love affair with Chardonnay (singer Brandy). I feel as though everyone wanted to see Jason and Kelly back together.


Not to mention how Jason's innocent little daughter turned into a too sassy, older teenager. What was up with that?

All of this annoys me because there isn't enough sitcoms with all-black casts on TV as it is. Even though I felt myself losing interest in The Game, I still tried to support and get others to support as well. But the reality of it is, the show was lacking in quality, and once the Black Population on Twitter gets a hold of anything is deems it uncool, it seems it actually does happen. 


The show had many possibilities, so did BET, who is known for not hosting too many sitcoms of there own, just reruns and syndication. Being that the show's whole dynamic will have to change since main characters Derwin and Melanie announced their leave, maybe this will give the writers a chance to spin into something more watchable and less of a sad reminder of what was once a great show.


XOXO, India Hill