YMMV / Any Day Now

• Funny Moments: In one of the show's rare light-hearted episodes (by comparison, anyway) "Lighten up, Rene", Rene and M.E. visit the former's beauty parlor so she can get her hair done. At one point, the curious latter ends up rubbing lye on her face, to the beauticians' (and soon her own, especially when it started to burn) horror. Cue a later scene with M.E. sitting at home and explaining that she got the burns from poison ivy, to a very skeptical Mrs. O'Brien's suspicions.
• Hollywood Pudgy: Rene shockingly asks "M.E., what is with those pants?!", having noticed how much weight she's gained recently, but M.E. really doesn't look any different.
• Ho Yay: In "It's Not About The Butter (Part 1)" Mary Elizabeth and Rene share a kiss just to spite a possible racist and homophobic man.
  • In another episode, young M.E. flips out upon seeing Teresa making out with another girl. . .who turns out to be a long-haired boy.
  • After fights with M.E. and Kelly, respectively, Collier and Ajoni go to a local bar to commiserate. Not until another man compliments them on their relationship do they realize that it's a gay bar.
• Nightmare Fuel: For a show about a decades-long friendship that originally aired on Lifetime, it doesn't shy away from scary moments illustrating the systemic violence of racial segregation:
  • In 1x06 "No Comment", young Renee goes to her first protest against racial segregation and is thrown into jail alongside many others on her first day. The loud music doesn't help either. On her second day protesting, she and many innocent protesters are met with white supremacist haters and hosed down with fire hoses and attacked with police brutality and attack dogs. It is so bad that Renee lies in bed awake at night and crying from the aftermath.
  • Later in the same episode in the present day, Renee and Mary Elizabeth are having an emotional conversation about friendship when all of a sudden, a brick gets tossed through Renee's living room window, frightening the both of them. The hater yells curse words at her before driving away and Renee laments "This ain't the first brick that got tossed through my window". Doubles as Tear Jerker.
  • In one episode, when Mary Elizabeth's racist Creepy Uncle Jimmy finds out she is friends with Renee Jackson, he shows up inside her childhood bedroom at night and looms over her bed angrily reprimanding her for "befriending a colored girl" and warns her not to try anything funny while he dates one of M.E's. teachers. All set with chilling music and her uncle's low voice and many Death Glare.
  • In season 1 episode, Mary Elizabeth and Renee are playing "cops and robbers" when a large splash of red appears suddenly on Renee's dress, frightening both Renee and Mary Elizabeth as their gunshots were just imaginary to them! The Splash of Color highlighting the blood on the dress against the monochrome background settings doesn't help either. Later, the fright dies down when their mothers explain how the red on her dress was just her period.
  • In a season 1 episode, M.E. feels responsible for her father's migraine after she wishes he would get a new brain that wasn't hateful.
  • In "Quit Being A Scaredy Cat Part 1 & 2, Rene goes on one bad date with a guy named Michael who turns out to be a complete creepy stalker. He proceeds to follow her around places, paint her face on the inside of a building, send her dozens of roses and won't stop leaving her many phone calls and messages on her answering machine despite Rene's insistence that he'd leave her alone. The ending of Part 1 shows a scared Rene listening by her answering machine as Michael contacts her endlessly. it's obvious that she finds his behavior frightening. Then Michael follows her and Mary Elizabeth to the fairgrounds, where he orders a clown to gift her with a another dozen roses. Then there's this Wham Line while Rene is alone in house wearing a lavender nightgown when Michael calls her again.
  Michael: "Lavender looks so pretty on you, Rene."
  • Then after being granted a permanent restraining order against the other, Rene finds a note written by Michael on her bed. He somehow managed to get inside Rene's home despite Rene's mother being in the house all day. The message on the note is rather creepy accompanied by the chilling music in the background.
  Michael: "One cop will never replace me, Rene!"
  • In the same episode, a childhood flashback shows a young Rene and Mary Elizabeth sneak out at night to go to a carnival and the two children witness a Klan rally. The Klansmen chants "Burn!" and racial slurs over and over against a large burning cross in the backdrop and a close-up shows a watch on one of the men's wrist which Mary Elizabeth immediately recognizes as her Uncle Jimmy's.
  Mary Elizabeth: I think we should go.
  • Then in the present day, just after Mary Elizabeth and Colliar bid goodnight to Rene, Michael shows up in plain sight outside Rene's home and attempts to invade her home, begging her to let him in. All Rene can do is scream Get Out! over and over to Michael while throwing objects at him and then break down in tears while her mother comforts her and Michael disappears. All set to some scary piano music.
  • In the episode "Music From My Life", when lovesick Teresa returns to Birmingham with Mary Elizabeth, she confronts the chilling memory of being molested by her piano teacher - the same man who now gives her niece Kelly piano lessons. Really, the fear of being hurt by someone you trusted to teach you something professionally. The idea of your child being left alone in the hands of any professional who turns out to be a complete predator. Also the Wham Line Teresa gives to M.E. after finding out who is Kelly's piano teacher:
  Teresa: You've got to get him away from her, Mary Elizabeth!
  • In episode 2x01 "You Promise?", Rene and M.E. sneak off to a segregated rock concert attended by both blacks and whites; but the girls immediately find themselves in danger when the police get involved and people get hurt.
  • In "It's Not About The Butter (Part 1)", Mary Elizabeth talks with Colliar about finances when they notice a bright glowing light from their window and are frightened when they finds a burning cross planted on her yard in the present day. All M.E and her family can do is look on in horror while Colliar desperately tries to put out the fire. The haunting music with the lyrics "echoes of the past..." and the fire department sirens don't help either.
  • The episode where Uncle Jimmy dies and Collier is sent to clean out his house, once he's inside his bedroom, he's surrounded by a vast collection of confederate and Nazi flags, his Klan uniform, hate speech publications, and other paraphernalia of bigotry he's accumulated over the decades. Not only does this scare Collier as he looks around in horrified silence and he comes to face his own mistreatment of Kelly and Ajoni, but he catches a glimpse at to what one could become if they let their hatred consume them. The gospel song playing in the background only adds to the scene.
• Tear Jerker:
  • The racial protest against injustice resulting in many innocent protesters being hosed down, attacked with police dogs and thrown into jail.
  • Mary Elizabeth's grandmother committing suicide in season 1.
  • Johnny being killed in action while serving in Vietnam. Especially the aftermath: Mrs. O'Brien collapses upon being told and in the long run, Mr. O'Brien never got over his death, which may have been a huge role in him suffering Alzheimer's Disease in the present day.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Kelly spends the entire fourth season whining to her mother about how difficult marriage and parenthood is, especially at such a young age. But she's the one who was having unprotected sex with her boyfriend—and blowing off her mother's attempts to have The Talk with her—and adamantly declared that she neither wanted to have an abortion nor give the child up for adoption. Her difficult situation is entirely of her own making.