YMMV / Anne with an E

• Captain Obvious Reveal: In-Universe, Anne treats the discovery that her biological family came from Scotland as a huge surprise and a big reveal. However, she was born in Nova Scotia^note literally, "New Scotland", where that applies to a plurality of the population.
• Franchise Original Sin: A lot of changes that fans complained about were actually in the books. For example, Matthew has a heart attack from the stress of their bank failing. In the book, not only does he also have a heart attack, he actually dies. Anne also was beaten in her previous homes due to prejudice of being an orphan.
• Genius Bonus: In Season 2, Episode 7, "Memory Has As Many Moods As The Temper," Marilla suffers from what modern viewers would easily recognize as migraines. When Anne comes home from Aunt Josephine's party and puts the flower crown she got at the party on Marilla's head, her pain starts to alleviate. This is more than just a heartwarming moment - migraine crowns have been shown in many patients to dramatically improve painful feelings due to nerve stimulation.
• Hollywood Homely:
  • Anne is outright called ugly many times in the series by many characters. To the point where she has deep insecurities about her looks and eventually "accepts" that's she's not beautiful. While Anne may not have the beauty of a young supermodel, she's perfectly adorable as a young kid. What's more, as she grows older, she becomes a fairly attractive young woman. Especially when she starts taking the effort to fix herself up as oppossed to her younger years.
  • There is merit to this in the books, as Anne's red hair is seen as unattractive in this time period (hence why she tries to dye it black). It's also said that people who hear Anne described as ugly find her prettier than they were expecting, while those who hear her as pretty find her plain. Not necessarily ugly, however, but simply plain.
• Iron Woobie: Poor Anne endured so much abuse, neglect, and bullying, starting when she was a literal baby. And yet, despite having seen the worst of people and the world, she always looks to the future with sunny optimism. It's actually a miracle she's the nicest girl you'll ever meet and she can be so positive.
• Les Yay: Anne and Diana are deeply devoted to one another, frequently swear undying love and loyalty with oaths that sound like wedding vows. Anne also spends a lot of time admiring her female friends' beauty, even describing each and every one of their lips with poetic raptures.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • In the second episode, Anne is met at the train station by a man who claims to have been sent to take her to "her family" and tries to lure her away. The savvy Anne immediately knows he's lying and runs away, and he immediately tries the same act with a couple of boys passing by on the platform.
  • Also Ka'Kwet's life in the residential school, and the abuse she suffers. What makes this worse is that stories like hers actually happened.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: The show's abrupt cancellation at the end of season three (and CBC's insistence that it would not be Uncancelled or get a Channel Hop) are now probably better known than the content of the show itself.
• Plot Tumor: While the inclusion of realistic minority characters was applauded, Bash's storyline (an original character) began to grow by adding more and more characters and creating conflicts wholesale for them instead of integrating him to the community or further exploring the racism he faced; and even though we're told Anne has developed a relationship with them, due to their fairly recent addition to the cast we rarely see Anne and Mary interact before she gets sick. Even Bash's own storyline about finding a place in Avonlea is dropped altogether. Some viewers would have preferred to let Bash first find a home in Avonlea before getting married or at least let Mary be around for longer and show their clashes with the town before cutting her character. But after only 3 episodes since their wedding she's removed from the picture without ever really interacting with the other characters in Avonlea before leaving the show.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Critics did not care for this series' liberties with the source material, including PTSD flashbacks for the ever-sunny Anne, house fires, suicidal thoughts on the part of Matthew of all people, and Green Gables taking in suspicious characters for boarders.
• Uncertain Audience: The show has several episodes and plot lines dedicated to educating kids and young teenagers about societal issues faced by marginalized groups and why diversity is worth celebrating; this sometimes results in a slightly corny, "PSA"-like tone that might make older viewers roll their eyes. At the same time, and probably as a consequence of this, the show presents a remarkably grounded and even cynical view of the world and doesn't stray away from dark topics such as discussions of suicidal ideation, PTSD and abuse, which some might find are a bit too depressing for some younger viewers. The writers do their best to balance these aspects to produce a show that can be enjoyed by the whole family, but there are stretches of runtime that will alienate at least some part of its viewers.

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