The Sarah Jane Adventures/YMMV


 * Angst What Angst: Sarah Jane is a Technical Pacifist who always tries to deal with hostile aliens in a peaceful and nonviolent way. However, when her enemies do die, she rarely shows much emotion. The deaths of enemies are often followed immediately by humorous scenes. The most Egregious examples are probably the
 * Complete Monster: The Trickster.
 * Not to mention the Pied Piper, who kidnaps children to feed off their parent's fear.
 * And Harrison, a Corrupt Corporate Executive who enslaves and tortures aliens.
 * Funny Aneurysm Moment: In one episode, the characters have fun pretending to be skeptics when Rani's parents tell them that they just saw aliens. In a later episode, an alien takes over Rani's mother's body, and Rani even says that playing ignorant isn't very funny anymore.
 * Harsher in Hindsight: The last episode broadcast before Elisabeth Sladen's death was the Series 4 finale — "Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith".
 * Even harsher, in it she seemingly suffers from a fatal debilitating disease.
 * Ho Yay:
 * Between Sarah Jane and Jo Grant in Death of the Doctor, especially at the end of the second episode.
 * Rani and Lady Jane Grey in Lost in Time.
 * Idiot Plot: In The Gift, ?
 * They wanted Sarah Jane to have a hand in the planet's downfall. For irony, or something.
 * Periphery Demographic: The show, as we've said just above, has a massive one among classic Doctor Who fans. It's probably deliberate, as Sarah Jane is widely considered the best Classic companion in the show's history, and is almost certainly the most beloved.
 * It honestly veers into Multiple Demographic Appeal after a while. While, at its heart, it is a show intended for kids, there are so many references to Sarah Jane (and Jo Grant's) adventures with previous Doctors that the younger set just won't get. Add to that the rather attractive parents (on both sides), storytelling that can stand with its parent shows, and Lis Sladen saying at one point they even dabbled in Costume Porn (to apparently bring in the Carrie Bradshaw set), and it truly seems like they went out of their way to cover every base and make something everybody could watch together.
 * Replacement Scrappy: Some of the show's fans really didn't like Sky, and the fact that she was apparently meant to supplant Luke in the long-term just made things worse. However, the majority of fans were generally more forgiving, since the manner of the show's ending meant that Sky never got the character development she was supposed to.
 * Rescued From the Scrappy Heap: The Slitheen in ; removing the Toilet Humour and the necessity for their human disguises to be fat people goes a long way to making them more credible as villains.
 * Shipping: Luke / Maria, Clyde / Maria, Alan / Sarah Jane. On the Livejournal side of fandom, Clyde / Luke and Sarah Jane / Maria (when Maria's 18 or older) are far more popular than those ships.
 * Villain Decay: The Slitheen. After proving to be quite a threat in Doctor Who, similarly nasty (if a bit more farcical) in Revenge Of The Slitheen, and downright cruel in  they've been reduced to being largely comic relief, particularly in the Red Nose Day short From Raxacoricofallapatorius With Love''.
 * Woobie Species: The Skullions.