I get excited about a lot of Lifetime TV movies, but never before have I been as pumped as I am for A Deadly Adoption, premiering Saturday night. I mean, it's not every day that Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig grace the network with their presence. Many of the ads and official summaries of A Deadly Adoption say it's based on a true story, but that claim might be part of the humor of it all. The TV movie itself is a tongue-in-cheek parody of the melodramatic goodness Lifetime churns out, and there are plenty of previous movies that A Deadly Adoption could have drawn inspiration from.
While neither Lifetime, Wiig, nor Ferrell have come right out to say the movie is a parody, many media outlets like Variety have assumed A Deadly Adoption must have a humorous edge. Last year, Wiig, Ferrell, and the movie's screenwriter Andrew Steele (a former SNL writer) collaborated on IFC's miniseries parody The Spoils of Babylon. Plus, it's Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig — they would be hilarious while reading the phonebook. In A Deadly Adoption, Wiig and Ferrell play a wealthy couple who take in a pregnant woman (played by Jessica Lowndes) with the hope that they'll be able to adopt her baby. Of course, things don't go as planned and the pregnant woman sets her sights on Ferrell to be her lovah. Drama ensues in what I hope is the all best ways possible.
While which true story supposedly inspired this movie is unclear, it's easy to figure out which past Lifetime movies lead to A Deadly Adoption.
The Last Trimester
What a foreboding title. This 2007 Lifetime thriller is very, very similar to A Deadly Adoption, right down to the pregnant woman who moves in with a couple during — yup — her last trimester.
The Babysitter's Seduction
Before she starred in Felicity and The Americans, Keri Russell played a babysitter in this 1996 TV movie. She gets framed for the murder of the kids' mother – and she happens to be having an affair with their father (Stephen Collins) as well. While A Deadly Adoption doesn't have a babysitter (that we know of), perhaps there will be some good ol' fashioned framing.
The Perfect Nanny
Look, sometimes Lifetime's own description of the plot just cannot be topped and that's the case with this 2000 movie. "After she is released from a mental hospital, a woman obsessed with romance novels takes a job as a nanny to a handsome widower -- and will kill anyone who stands in the way of her becoming his wife." It seems ripe for parody... Perhaps someone in A Deadly Adoption will like romance novels?
The Surrogate
When a wealthy couple can't conceive a child, they turn to a surrogacy agency in this 2013 TV movie. The surrogate they wind up with actually has a crush on the husband, who teaches her college class. Maybe Lowndes' character in A Deadly Adoption will have known Ferrell from somewhere else first.
The Surrogacy Trap
Another sweet couple who can't conceive decide to go with a surrogate who isn't what she seems. This 2013 TV movie actually sounds just like A Deadly Adoption, except with a focus on surrogacy instead of adoption.
The Nightmare Nanny
A mom hires a nanny to watch her daughter as she returns to work, but when her daughter vanishes, the nanny's dark secrets are revealed. So how many dark secrets will be hidden in A Deadly Adoption? I can't wait to see Wiig and Ferrell unravel them all.
Image: Lifetime
