Tubi’s ‘Adopted’ Features a Killer Child Performance [Review]

There’s something delightful about a young child swearing. It feels inherently wrong, but in the proper circumstances, it can be a great source of humor and shock.

That’s how it plays in writer/director Christopher B. Stokes’s new Tubi film, Adopted (2024). The “bad seed” narrative follows 10 year old Dylan (Jayden Aguirre), who’s killing his current foster family in the cold open. The case is investigated by Detective Dante Miller (Marques Houston), but Dylan is so convincing at playing the innocent victim that his outlandish story about a killer biker is immediately accepted as fact.

Jump ahead to wealthy couple Carrie (Drew Sidora) and James (Daniel J. Johnson) receiving the happy news that they can adopt Dylan, whose past has somehow been completely buried.

James is happy to support his wife’s desire for a “perfect” family (take a shot each time she says the word), though Carrie’s preference to adopt a girl immediately anticipates hiccups down the line.

Enter Dylan, who initially appears easy going and polite. When Carrie’s not-so-secret wish about having a girl arises, however, Dylan’s happy go-lucky façade begins to unravel. The fact that Bella (Livy Neachell) arrives only two weeks later is only one of the many suspension of disbelief moments in Stokes’ script, which tends to side-step the reality of both adoption and police investigations in favor of telling an entertaining, albeit occasionally ridiculous story.