Lonelyhearts (Grimm)

The episode was viewed by 5.44 million people, earning a 1.6/5 in the 18-49 rating demographics on the Nielson ratings scale, marking a 5% increase in viewership and ranking second in its timeslot and fourth for the night in the 18-49 demographics, behind Dateline NBC, CSI: NY and Blue Bloods.[1] This means that 1.6 percent of all households with televisions watched the episode, while 5 percent of all households watching television at that time watched it.

"Lonelyhearts" received mixed-to-positive reviews. Amy Ratcliffe of IGN gave the episode a "okay" 6.0 out of 10 and wrote "This series has to be careful to balance the camp factor and the dark subject. If it goes too far in either direction, it just becomes something silly. The bee episode was too campy. I feel like this episode hit the ideal balance and added in a touch of horror movie feeling. It's too bad the plot wasn't meaty; it was just... toad-y. Standard cases aren't enough for this show. We've already seen Grimm can do better, and I hope it does."[2]

The A.V. Club's Kevin McFarland gave the episode a "B−" grade and wrote, "I'm having a hard time assigning a grade to this episode of Grimm. Really I've been having a hard time grading this whole series. Look, I like classic Disney movies as much as the next animation fan, but the way Once Upon A Time takes the path of least resistance with all of its princess characters has really started to bore me. Other than Rumpelstiltskin, who's a breath of fresh air thanks to an extraordinary re-interpretation, most of the OUaT cast fails to defy expectation. It's not just that I've got the Grimm beat here at the A.V. Club, I honestly believe that what this show is doing to reinterpret fairy tales and folklore is genuinely more creative than how ABC's fantasy drama is doing with Disney stock characters."[3]

TV Overmind's Shilo Adams wrote, "One of my main problems with the pilot of Grimm was its worrying dual selves, wherein the show could go big and a little campy or it could go dark and somewhat gritty, with both sides of the coin containing a certain amount of credibility. It's a backhanded sort-of problem ('you do too many things well! stop it!') that generally gets worked out through time, network notes, and fan feedback, but until it does get worked out, episodes tend to be more hit-and-miss than the talent involved would make you think."[4]

Nick McHatton from TV Fanatic, gave a 3.5 star rating out of 5, stating: "'Lonelyhearts' didn't offer much this week, there were some high points, but they were few and far between. As always, one of the high points was Eddie, in a slightly different capacity no less! Nick's reliance on the book to paint a bigger back story on the Blue Beards allowed us to get a better idea of what the creature was before Eddie filled us in with small details about them. By doing this, Eddie's role was expanded slightly. Less exposition by Eddie means more comedy, and that's always a good thing."[5]