History Series / TheGame2006

MoralOfTheStory: treat your audience like they matter, and they’ll reward you.

* AllMenArePerverts: The reason many ballers' wives claim they have to be ''that'' much better in bed in order to keep their men from straying, because of all the temptation out there for the picking. Malik pretty much screws anything that walks, except for the few attempts at having a dedicated relationship. On the other hand...
* AllWomenAreLustful: ...the women aren't exactly chaste either, especially in season four. The wife of the Sabers owner regularly cheats on her husband with Malik, and threatened to blackmail him when he refused her advances overtime. Women in lingerie often appear in Derwin's hotel rooms. The girlfriend of TT, Malik's best friend, screws Malik behind TT's back one day. The Game is pretty much one of the only shows that exhibit lusty behavior on both genders.
* AlwaysSecondBest: How Chardonnay feels when Kelly makes her return in season 7.

* BreakTheHaughty: Jason in season 2, Malik in season 4. Both of them get better though, despite avoiding SuddenHumility (their {{Jerkass}} simply got toned down). Derwin seems to be headed this direction in season 5 after [[spoiler: he intentionally missed a tackle and exposed the Sabers' rookie quarterback to a season ending, and possibly career ending, injury. Despite Derwin denying the act, [[ConvictedByPublicOpinion the press and fans savaged him for his presumed actions.]] ]]

** Malik has called out Tasha numerous times for either not properly doing her job as his manager or her dubious choices in her personal life.
** Brittany calls out both her father and mother for their selfish nature.

** Tasha: "I got your X in my trunk."

* CerebusSyndrome: The show started out as a standard sitcom, but eventually became a full-blown dramedy, heavy on the drama-side.

* ChubbyChaser: Malik is also into plus-sized women.

* CrapsaccharineWorld: One of the better examples portrayed in scripted TV. The world of professional sports looks very sheen and high class on the surface, but on the business end, questionable practices and shady internal politics often rear their ugly heads. The San Diego setting also brings home a high quotient of beautiful women, which makes it hell for the engaged/married players. But even these temptresses come with their own agenda, as many of them aspire to get impregnated by a Sabers player for child support. Backstabbing is quite common amongst businessman and players, simply to reach their aspiring goals ([[LonelyAtTheTop and may come with a cost for those who abandon their friends along the way]]). For players who act wisely on and off the field, they won't have many regrets come retirement time, but with the number of people chewed up and spit out by the perils of the professional sports life, it's the exception more than the norm.

** Perhaps most noticeable with Malik's friend Terrence (or T.T) who practically never had a serious, dramatic line pre-cancellation, recieved a subplot where his girlfriend cheats on him with [[spoiler:Malik]].
** Season five, though far less depressing than the previous season, went even further this direction.

** It got to the point that in the BET seasons, the laugh track feels forced, uncomfortable, inappropriate, and out of place in the middle of all the heavy drama. As early as season six, they ditched the laugh track completely, and humorous moments are now [[CerebusSyndrome very few and far between]].
* DepravedBisexual: Averted. The only bisexual woman shown so far turned out to be pretty modest and respectful, even with her open-minded sexulity.

* DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale: Unfortunately, played straight when Tasha visits Malik's father, Chauncy. When Tasha visits his place one too many times, Chauncy's wife thinks he's cheating on her. When he runs outside and tries to explain that he didn't, she punches him in the face. He comes back, holding his left eye, and the LaughTrack comes on, portraying this as humorous.
* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: Happened in season 4 when Parker (played by Meagan Good) blackmailed Malik into sleeping with her [[HypocriticalHumor by saying she would tell everyone he raped her if he didn't]]. As you know, Malik is a football player, and this would likely destroy his life completely, especially since he has done many questionable things already. Anyway, after they slept together(the show never acknowledges that this is rape, even with the look of despair on his face) she hits him in the back of the head and makes him [[LampshadedDoubleEntendre go another round]]. Cue LaughTrack... She never got called out on this, got a FreudianExcuse, and even walked out of it [[KarmaHoudini relatively cleanly]], much cleaner than Malik himself did.
** Not quite a KarmaHoudini, since season five revealed that Parker was divorced and financially cut off from her husband.

* FreudianExcuse: The reason why Jason is such a money tightwad is because his football father was horrible at money management to the point their family had to move to save any kind of finance.

* GayAesop: Malik has one in season 1 when one of his Sabers teammates is outed (by a homophobic Malik) and the Sabers make a decision to stand by him. However, most of the teammates only do so for publicity. Thankfully, Malie realizes how messed up his previous behavior was and apologizes to said teammate.

** An aversion -- [[spoiler:Melanie became impregnated with Trey's baby but couldn't deal with having a child at that point in her life and had an abortion]].

* ItsAllAboutMe: A common flaw that the main cast shares together -- They don't care about the outcome or who gets hurt as long as they achieve their intended goal.

** Malik sleeping with T.T.'s girlfriend in season four out of pure spite.

* LaughTrack: Used here just as often as other TV comedies. The fourth season, however, doesn't use it as often. By season 5, it's altogether done away with.

* MamasBabyPapasMaybe: The central conflict that Melanie has with Derwin, Janay, and D.J. is a nagging feelings that D.J. isn't Derwin's biological child. As such, she secretly swabs D.J. to get a DNA test and the results show that neither Derwin nor D.J. are related. [[SubvertedTrope However]], Melanie receives news that the lab made a mistake and they ''are'' related but she [[WhatYouAreInTheDark keeps it to herself]] until Janay was about to deliver the news.

* MasterOfTheMixedMessage: Derwin during the whole LoveTriangle with him, Melanie, and Drew. He ''tries'' to show he and Drew are just friends but his actions speak louder, and he ends up sleeping with her. He still loves Melanie so it was a MomentOfWeakness more so but Drew was left hurt by Derwin not being more clear on his feelings.

* MistakenForGay: Malik's ex, Robin Givens, implies on live TV that he is closet, which the former ''greatly'' denies. [[spoiler:This leads to an actual gay Sabers team member to accidentally come out.]]

* MoodDissonance: T.T. has a habit of jumping in with a humorous line at the end of otherwise serious scenes.

* OnlySaneMan: T.T. is also the only character that seems to always have himself together, while at the same time keeping other characters from going off the rails. With one exception that wasn't even his fault.

** Notorious playboy Malik who never hid his attraction to Melanie ''refuses'' to sleep with a naked, willing Melanie since she's only doing it to get some emotional relief from assuming Derwin cheated on her again with Drew.
** In season four, Jason is noted to love his game show because it allowed him to be a {{Troll}}. However, he calls his boss to ''quit'' said job to better look after Brittany when he discovers her criminal-like behavior.

** Even with him being more of an asshole in season 4, it's ''Malik'' who manages to convince Derwin to not jump the gun and divorce Melanie after the whole "swabbing D.J. incident".

*** Not quite. Tasha's pre-title screen line in the first episode of season four was a beyond-emphatic "Game on, BITCHES." It was blanked in re-runs.

In 2021, the series was revived on Creator/ParamountPlus with Wendy Raquel Robinson and Hosea Chanchez returning and a new cast of characters and a new setting in Las Vegas.

** The whole show is this compared to the series it technically spun off from, ''{{Series/Girlfriends}}.''

* PoorlyDisguisedPilot: The show's premise and characters were established in a season 6 episode of the Creator/{{UPN}} sitcom ''Series/{{Girlfriends}}'', in which Melanie is depicted as the cousin of that show's lead character Joan Clayton.

The series is a spinoff from ''Series/{{Girlfriends}}'', and shares the same universe as ''Series/{{Moesha}}'' and ''Series/TheParkers''.

* CerebusSyndrome: See DarkerAndEdgier below.

* GenreShift: The show started out as a sitcom, but eventually became a full-blown dramedy, heavy on the drama-side.