Valerie Ettenhofer
School
Saint Mary's College Of California
Expertise
The Last Of Us, Stranger Things, Streaming TV
- An "Avatar: The Last Airbender" superfan since 2005, Valerie has previously ranked every episode of the series, and even has a tattoo of the four element symbols.
- Valerie wrote an essay about the Nicolas Cage drama "Pig" – her favorite movie of 2021 – that appears in the 2023 Simon & Schuster anthology "Sad Happens."
- Valerie has recently served on the Critics Choice Awards TV comedy nominating committee, where she was thrilled to help highlight breakout performances from great shows like "Reservation Dogs" and "Abbott Elementary."
Experience
Valerie has been working professionally as an entertainment journalist since 2012, when she began writing freelance for her local college newspaper and quickly rose through the ranks to become editor-in-chief. After college, Valerie interned at the historic Roxie Theater in San Francisco, writing copy for their website and falling even more in love with film in the process. Since then, her work has appeared in print in the East Bay Express, as well as on websites like The Playlist, Movie Mezzanine, Nonfics, Certified Forgotten, IndieReader, and Film School Rejects. Valerie is currently the lead TV critic at Film School Rejects, and she represents the site as a member of both the Critics Choice Association's TV and Documentary branches and the LGBTQ+ critics' circle, GALECA. She also authors a weekly pop culture newsletter, titled "Hey, What Are You Watching?"
Education
Valerie graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor's degree from Saint Mary's College of California, where she studied English. Her film-heavy education allowed her to study special topics in pop culture, including independent film and the works of Alfred Hitchcock.
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Stories By Valerie Ettenhofer
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MASH actor Wayne Rogers was apparently notorious for breaking on the set of the dramedy, which didn't always please creator Larry Gelbart.
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Murder, She Wrote movie writers Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo intend to honor Jessica Fletcher by approaching her from a more modern perspective.
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Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget is a razor-sharp satire, but its creators took almost too much from life to be a safe bet legally.
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The new Chicken Run film, Dawn of the Nugget, pulled from various cinematic sources for inspiration, but Sam Fell was particularly inspired by the heist genre.
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Fans have long wanted to see Sons of Anarchy and Pacific Rim star Charlie Hunnam play Green Arrow in a DC superhero movie, but the actor turned down the role.
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Bones showrunner Hart Hanson got in hot water with fans for hyping a buzzworthy scene in the season 4 finale as being something it wasn't.
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What makes a great TV episode? It's a tough question, but we've done our best to break down the 10 best TV episodes of 2023. Let's go!
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Fans of the Reacher series may be wondering how the show will handle the events of the Tom Cruise films. The latest episode finally shows us.
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Here's how to watch Brooklyn Nine-Nine, whether you want to stream the entire series, purchase digital copies, or go all-in on physical media.
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The Reacher season 2 cast has thoughts on why so many women enjoy the series (as well as the problem of labeling media as being 'for men' or 'for women').
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Andre Braugher admitted that She Said director Maria Schrader did something he'd never seen before: allowing the actors to perform without rehearsing.
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Reacher season 2 is an entertaining mix of contrasts: compassion and vengeance, quirkiness and rigidity, status quo and subversion.
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Andre Braugher, the two-time Emmy-winning actor has died after a short illness at the age of 61. May he rest in peace.
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As the year comes to an end, we're looking back at the 10 best TV shows of 2023. What made the cut? Click the story to find out!
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Noah Hawley's Fargo achieves the rare feat of building off and creating a separate identity from the original Coens movie, and each season ranks differently.
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While you could watch the Hunger Games movies in narrative chronological order, that doesn't make for the most enriching viewing experience.
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Donald Glover and Maya Erskine put a new spin on the original 2005 film in the trailer for the Prime Video action rom-com series Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
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Norman Lear, a TV pioneer with a legendary career, has died at the age of 101.
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We are finally, for better or worse, getting a full-on Trump biopic. Sebastian Stan will star in Ali Abbasi's take on the young real estate developer.
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Rhys Darby, who plays gentleman pirate Stede Bonnet on Max's Our Flag Means Death, tells us all about season 2, that ending, the show's fandom, and more.
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Wes Craven's phenomenal 1991 racial satire The People Under the Stairs is long overdue for a good remake, and that's exactly what producer Jordan Peele intends.
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Adam Sandler's new Netflix animated feature Leo is a success, which is a sharp contrast to his animated film Eight Crazy Nights.
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Mr. and Mrs. Smith is coming to the small screen near you, and here's everything you need to know about the Donald Glover/Maya Erskine starring series.
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From his signature clown makeup to his gross false teeth, transforming Terrifier's David Howard Thornton into Art the Clown takes about three hours.
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The Saw timeline is notoriously complex, convoluted some even say. Case in point, Saw X was going to be Sax IX, so what does that make Spiral?
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Napoleon is battling Disney's Wish for second place at the Thanksgiving box office, as Apple Original Films makes another bid for awards season prestige.
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The way Martin Scorsese ended Killers of the Flower Moon will go down in film history books, but he almost ended the film in a different, equally powerful way.