5 to 9 much better than most of this season that [he] felt it deserved mention". Sepinwall praised Edelstein's acting and the episode's "day-in-the-life" format, citing "5 to 9" as proof that "there are still really strong elements to this series." Jonah Krakow of IGN rated "5 to 9" 9.2/10, signifying an "outstanding" episode. Kraków compared it positively to the earlier season six episode "Wilson", which similarly varied from the show's traditional format by depicting events from the perspective of House's friend James Wilson. He deemed the episode "amazing", calling it a "great showcase" for Edelstein and suggesting that a show centered on
How Many Licks? on her blonde hair and blue eyes. They wrote that Lil' Kim would be remembered by "her participation in codes of pornographic descriptions of women" rather than her commentary on sexuality. Selected scholars compared the video to those released by other rappers. In his essay "Supa Dupa Fly: Black Women as Cyborgs in Hiphop Videos", cultural critic Steven Shaviro wrote that the videos for "How Many Licks?" and American rapper Missy Elliott's 1997 single "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)" contain “stories of black female empowerment, in the face of deeply engrained racism and sexism". Feminist scholars M. L. Williams and