After the CW Network canceled “The Game” back in 2009, it seemed as if the half-hour dramedy was dead for good. Now almost two years later, the show is back with all new episodes on BET.
The premiere of season four (appropriately) picks up two years after season three ended. To say a lot’s happened with the characters in two years would be short-changing the changes.
Derwin and Melanie, the show’s main characters, are two years married, but now Melanie — who spent the previous three seasons studying to be a doctor — is a housewife and a step-mother to Derwin’s two-year old son. Melanie is suspicious Derwin’s son — who he had with another woman in the middle of a short-lived break-up with Melani — is really his son, so while giving the young boy a bath, Melanie takes a swab of his saliva and goes behind Derwin’s back to get a DNA test.
As for the rest of the cast, there’s still plenty of drama to go around. Tasha Mack, agent to both Derwin and his teammate Malik (who is also Tasha’s son) is dating the much younger Donté (played by BET personality Terrence J). Tasha is doing her best to suppress her true feelings for Donté but when she discovers his ex-girlfriend is none other than Sheree from “Real Housewives of Atlanta” (played as herself) who is also older than Donté, Tasha responds emotionally.
Meanwhile, Tasha’s son Malik, the star of The San Diego Sabers (the fictional football team he and Derwin play on), has let success go to his head. Not only is he sleeping with the girlfriend (played by Meagan Good), of the new majority owner of his team, he is pushing his best friend Terrence (better known in the show as Tee-Tee) to the edge. After Malik pushes one too many of Tee-Tee’s buttons, Tee-Tee takes a stand against Malik. When Tee-Tee goes to Malik’s mansion to patch things up with his best friend, he walks in on Malik sitting in a Jacuzzi with the owner’s girlfriend and another woman, who just so happens to be Tee-Tee’s girlfriend.
Last but not least is the ongoing battle between Jason and Kelly. Fresh out of their divorce, Jason and Kelly spend the entire episode trying to make each other more upset with their shenanigans. Kelly is a cast member of the reality television show “Ex-Football Wives” and Jason attempts to pull her out of the show while salvaging what little career he has left as a member of The Sabers. After Kelly pops up in the middle of Jason’s interview on the sports talk show, “Benched” — hosted by former NBA-player Chris Webber (who plays himself) — Jason gets his revenge near the end of the episode when he drops in on a taping of Kelly’s reality show with a new girl on his arm.
By the end of the hour-long premiere (the show reverts back to it’s original half-hour starting next week), everyone’s hands are dirty. “The Game” is back on, literally and figuratively.
