 Mike Hale of the New York Times was critical of the episode, discussing the show's "increasingly rapid march toward Hallmark country." He commented that while "Acafellas" did not match the standard of the pilot episode, it was funnier than "Showmance", and praised the return of Stephen Tobolowsky as Sandy Ryerson. Hale called Groban's cameo the "most fun of all" in the episode, but overall noted that: "The humor can ’ t make up for the lack of big production numbers [...] The problem for this show is always going to be how to fill the gaps between songs. A lot of the current plot lines, like Will and his wife's phantom baby, are already getting old, so it would behoove the producers to keep those gaps as short as possible." Rachel Ray, reviewing the episode for The Independent deemed Glee "overhyped [...] uninspired, confusing and with a simple plot to boot." Ray wrote, Glee's "upbeat message" was "overridden by the show's attempt to be darker than the run-of-the mill high school drama." As with Hale, Ray commented that: "Music should be the redeeming feature of Glee but it's not, because the viewer never gets a satisfying taste of the cast members'musical talents". Shawna Malcom criticized Terri and Will's characterization in the episode, deeming Terri "beyond annoying", but wrote: "I have confidence that creator Ryan Murphy will flesh out Jessalyn Gilsig ’ s character over time. Her seemingly sincere apology to Will for not being more supportive of his boy band was a nice first step." Of Will, Malcom posed the question: "didn ’ t it feel as though his commitment to the glee club melted away rather quickly? [...] How could he turn his back so easily?" More positively, Malcom called Kurt's coming out scene "lovely". She wrote that Groban's appearance was "laugh out loud" funny, while Stack commented: "It was a little random, but it's all worth it for the scene when Groban was hitting on Will's mom."
