Melanie Barnett-Davis[1][2] is a fictional character, portrayed by actress Tia Mowry, who appears in the American sitcom The Game, which aired on the CW Television Network and BET from 2006 to 2015.

Introduced in a backdoor pilot on the sitcom Girlfriends as Joan Clayton's cousin, Melanie chooses to support her boyfriend Derwin Davis' career with the San Diego Sabres, a fictional National Football League (NFL) team, rather than attend medical school at Johns Hopkins University.

The Game, which aired on The CW Television Network and BET,[3] explores the lives of a group of women romantically involved with professional football players.

[4] Introduced as the cousin of Joan Clayton in a backdoor pilot on Girlfriends,[5] Melanie Barnett aspires to be a doctor and is admitted to the medical school at Johns Hopkins University.

[16] At the end of the show's fifth season, Melanie and Derwin move to Baltimore after he is traded to play for a team based in the city, and she finally enrolls at Johns Hopkins University.

[18] Brock Akil originally conceived the show and the characters of Melanie and Derwin to give viewers access to the world of professional football, a sport she and her husband appreciate.

[19] The New York Times' Virginia Heffernan wrote that one of the show's objectives was "to relieve ideological tensions instead of creating or ignoring them", citing its multi-ethnic female cast of characters as one of the means of achieving this goal.

[23] Cynthia Addai-Robinson was originally cast to play Melanie,[4] but was replaced by Tia Mowry prior to development of the backdoor pilot.

[24] Critics frequently billed Mowry as The Game's lead actress,[3][20][25][26] and Brock Akil referred to Melanie and Derwin as "the heart" of the series.

[27] Prior to hearing about The Game, Mowry had changed her appearance in order to be perceived as more mature and to emphasize the differences between herself and her twin sister.

[1][31] Vibe Vixen's Jennifer Hickman referred to Melanie as "bookwormy",[32] and Virginia Heffernan characterized her as "wholesome and a good student" in the pilot.

"[3] Following Melanie and Derwin's exit, two characters, draft pick Bryce "The Blueprint" Westbrook and child star Keira Whitaker, portrayed by Jay Ellis and Lauren London, respectively, were introduced on the series.

[40] Brock Akil described the changes made to The Game as a "true resurrection", with Wendy Raquel Robinson (Tasha Mack) saying future episodes would be "completely different, crisper and edgier and sexier".

[2] Discussing the direction intended for Melanie and Derwin's final appearance, Brock Akil said: "To bring these characters back to shore is such a blessing.

"[41] In 2021, Paramount+ premiered a revival of The Game, which takes place in Las Vegas and addresses social issues such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy in sports.

[44] Echoing McFarland's assessment, The San Francisco Chronicle's Tim Goodman found Melanie's decision to be "a bleak little life lesson".

Gammage criticized the series for showing Melanie becoming a wife "at the expanse of her career and possibility of bear[ing] her own children" and portraying her as unable to care for her stepson.

[46] Fans reacted positively to the characters' relationship, and dubbed the couple the portmanteau "Merwin",[38] which BET adopted and used to promote Mowry and Hall's appearances in the series finale.

[38] A writer from HuffPost cited the pairing as a "big part of the winning formula for the series",[47] and Mowry attributed the positive fan response to her chemistry with Hall.

While discussing her career in his 2010 book Encyclopedia of African American Actresses in Film and Television, author Bob McCann wrote that Mowry demonstrated maturity through her more dramatic role in the series.

[9] Melody K. Hoffman of Jet wrote that, through her performance in the show, Mowry had demonstrated her love for acting and her capacity to portray a woman.

[27] In a negative review, USA Today's Robert Bianco was uncertain of Mowry's capabilities as a comedic actress, saying she frequently relied on child acting techniques that were inappropriate for an adult character.