from critics. Aly Semigran of MTV, Robert Canning of IGN and Entertainment Weekly Tim Stack all deemed it one of the best of the season, with Canning rating it an "incredible" 9.5/10, and Semigran stating that it contained all of the series' best elements: "surprising musical numbers, with the right balance of humor and life lessons." Emily VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club found it to be an improvement on the previous two episodes, writing that if not genuinely good, "The Substitute" at least proved that Glee has not been entirely subsumed by its own hype. Time James Poniewozik felt that it was a relatively subdued, mediocre episode, which contained "a collection of good small moments". Brett Berk of Vanity Fair criticized the focus it placed on the adult characters at the expense of the teenagers and the disregard for continuing plot strands in favor of a celebrity cameo, but concluded that "despite all that, some of it kind of worked." The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) took exception to this episode, which, it stated, "mocked and trivialized bipolar disorder" during Paltrow's history classroom scene, in which she role-plays as Mary Todd Lincoln. NAMI encouraged people to contact Murphy and Fox TV to convey their disappointment with the scene. Paltrow's guest appearance attracted critical praise. Both Stack and E! Online Kristin dos Santos called it Emmy-worthy, with the former rating it amongst her best ever performances, and the latter stating that Holly received "some of Glee best-ever one-liners. VanDerWerff enjoyed her role, and wrote that Holly injected an effortless sense of fun, despite much of her plot being nonsensical. Entertainment Weekly Ken Tucker praised Paltrow for being one of the first guest stars to perform well alongside Sue, and wrote that her classroom scenes made the episode "one in which the guest star both stood out and meshed with the cast". The Atlantic Meghan Brown commented that Paltrow "brought a massive spark to what could have been a one-note role", and her Atlantic co-author Kevin Fallon wrote that her energetic performance saved an episode that might have been "in shambles without her presence". Canning stated that Paltrow's casting could have been distracting, but instead she fit the role "seamlessly", and CNN's Lisa Respers France compared her performance favorably to Britney Spears cameo in the episode "Britney/Brittany". Several critics stated that they enjoyed Paltrow's appearance despite experiencing trepidation about it prior