History YMMV / TheAssassinationOfGianniVersace

* ValuesDissonance: The 1990's gets this in spades, per the EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory interpretation noted by reviewers. Between "Don't Ask Don't Tell" (which created witch hunts against closeted gay servicemen and only made homophobia in the military worse, not better), references to coming out of the closet as something that can destroy someone professionally, paranoia from gay men who refuse to report crimes out of fear that the police would not investigate/claim they were asking for it, and the psychological impact of closeting one's sexuality and the resentment boiling over to murderous rage; the show debunks a lot of people's rose colored view of the 1990's in relations to how things were for gay men and women at the time.

* {{Anvilicious}}: Homophobia and the societal demonization of gay people/gay culture is bad.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: Part of Andrew's success in his predation is because his victims were marginalized in society, too afraid to come forward about minor concerns and yellow flags concerning Andrew in fear of the public ridicule, shame, family fallout, and legitimate loss of their livelihoods that potentially outing themselves would cause. An argument can be made that one of the reasons the FBI fumbled so hard in their pursuit of Andrew is because of who he and his victims were: the "foreignness" of queerness either subconsciously making them put less effort in their work or, even worse, a conscious decision to be lax. And as far as the US has come with gay rights, there is still much to be done to address the psychological, emotional, and mental trauma that living under such conditions can leave on an entire swath of society.

* HarsherInHindsight:
** In the midst of this series about a case where the FBI performed notoriously poorly and missed numerous opportunities to bring the perpetrator in, came the Parkland school massacre, in which they also turned out to have ignored numerous reports that the shooter was dangerous.
** Under the EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory theory, it also treats the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" stance as homosexuality as such.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: The series could be really called "The ''Assassin'' of Gianni Versace." Versace himself works as an accessory, framing character, which is a pity because the circumstances of this SelfMadeMan who became a global celebrity are quite captivating but only shown sparsely.

* BrokenBase: The VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory nature of this series has divided fans. On one side are those who are appalled at the liberties the show has taken (including details about Cunanan's relationships with his victims, which the show created from whole cloth) while others are pissed at the fact that the book the show is based off of (''Vulgar Favors'') promotes controversial rumors, such as Versace having AIDS (which the show hints at via vague scenes which are later shown to reference to Gianni's well-documented fight with cancer) and knowing Cunanan beforehand (for which there is no evidence, besides Cunanan's own, decidedly-unreliable testimony). Other fans argue that, given the dearth of information available about why Cunanan carried out his crimes, liberties would have to be taken in order to make the show compelling.