The episode, he claimed, was indicative of a "mid-series lull". The freelance journalist Dan Owen felt the episode was "entertaining fare, but too predictable and clichéd to prove genuinely memorable", awarding it two out of four stars. He, too, said the episode felt like "a mid-series misstep". Shearsmith was unhappy with those who thought the episode a "dud" or a "misfire", confessing that it was his favourite episode of the second series. Pemberton felt it was going to be difficult to follow "The 12 Days of Christine", but Shearsmith was of the view that the episodes should not be in competition with each other. The episode's humour was praised by the majority of commentators. Julia Raeside, writing for "The Guardian", said the writers "managed to pull together a loving tribute to [their] cult horror source material with an all-out gag rate that most sitcoms would fail to keep up with", claiming that "they get the look and tone just right and then inject it with the kind of comedy that is perfectly tailored to puncture the fictional world without deflating it". Similarly, Debnath felt that the jokes, including "anachronistic references" and "dark punnery", were "bang on". By contrast, Hawksley claimed that the episode had several "inspired moments", including a "perfectly pitched" joke about selfies, but that the writers had failed to properly exploit the 17th-century setting. Overall, though finding it "occasionally funny", Hawksley thought the episode "fell some way short of what we have come to expect from Pemberton and Shearsmith". For the comedy critic Bruce Dessau, the episode was "all the more hauntingly funny because it is played pretty straight", but he noted that the character of Sir Andrew Pike allowed "some offbeat humour". Chater called the episode "very, very funny", and Philip Cunnington, of the "Lancashire Evening Post", called it "one of the funniest half-hours of TV so far this year" after the conclusion of the series. Television critics praised the writing and acting of "The Trial of Elizabeth Gadge". Though Owen felt that the ending "held little surprise", Paddy Shennan, of the "Liverpool Echo", said he "loved the fact that, for the third week running, [he] couldn't work out the twist". For Debnath, "the best was saved till last", but the whole episode was "tightly written".