2022-23

Angela's Monthly NFL Notes

Angela Lafond '24

I am writing this article as the NFL season is entering week six. Let’s recap the season so

far! So far the Philadelphia Eagles are the only undefeated team at 5-0. The Eagles do look good

but they haven’t really played any good teams yet. They have one of the easiest schedules in the

NFL which makes it hard to tell if they're actually good or just beating bad teams. Some other

high up contenders this NFL season are the Buffalo Bills, Kansas City Chiefs, the Tampa Bay

Buccaneers, the Green Bay Packers, and the San Francisco 49ers. Some other surprisingly good

teams are the New York Giants, the New York Jets, and the Jacksonville Jaguars. Each week in

the NFL seems like a new story. Anyone can win.

I have a few hot takes for the rest of October. One hot take is that the Eagles will lose to

the Dallas Cowboys this weekend and then lose to the Steelers the week after that. I think the

Eagles will lose their status as undefeated and go on a two game losing streak. My next hot take

is that the Lions will upset the rest of the teams they play in October. The Lions play the

Cowboys and the Dolphins. I think they can beat both of them out. My third hot take is that

Carson Wentz, the quarterback for the Washington Commanders, will be benched by the end of

October. He may not be benched for long, but I believe he very well could get benched because

of his sluggish performance so far.

With all these hot takes I want to next say my early Super Bowl prediction. I think the

two teams in the Super Bowl will be the Buffalo Bills versus the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The

Bills are off to a great start this season and seem to be the strongest team. I also think the

Buccaneers will be in the Super Bowl because this could be Tom Brady’s last season and he will

want to end it on a high note.

Alright that is all for this month! I will write again in November and see if my hot takes

of the month were right or not.

HOMECOMING

Genevieve Adamow '25

On October 22, 2022, Archbishop Wood held its annual homecoming dance. Themed “Casino Royale”, the dance was held from 6:30 to 9:30 pm. The location of the dance was in the south back parking lot, and around 620 students and outside dates attended the dance.

The week of the dance was filled with school spirit and happy faces. By purchasing five dollar wristbands, students were able to wear shirts and socks suitable to the theme of each day, and wear full dress down on Friday. The week’s themes included USA, Neon, Wood Spirit, and many more. On Friday morning, during the M-Bell, a homecoming pep rally was held for the students and teachers of Wood and Our Lady of Confidence, who conjoined with Archbishop Wood last fall. A game of musical chairs was played, and Wood junior Matt Miller took the win. Archbishop Wood’s fall varsity sports teams were introduced, and the Varsity Girls’ cheer leading team gave an exciting performance. The pep rally seemed to be a big hit with the students, as it was the first of this year.

Homecoming courts from each grade were also brought back this year, starting as a tradition at Bishop McDevitt high school, which closed down the Spring of 2021. Nominees for the homecoming court were voted for by their classmates, and were presented at Friday morning’s rally. At the dance, football player Mikey Oberholtzer was crowned homecoming king and Wood Wackies’ president Shaina Klos was crowned queen. As a privilege this year, senior Wood students were permitted to bring outside dates.

Decorating for the dance was done by Wood’s very own Student Council, with the help of Mrs. Newlin, Mrs. Martin, and Mrs. Kasperski. Decorations included a roulette wheel, hanging lights, and giant playing cards scattered throughout the light poles. Like last year, the dance was held in the south back parking lot and southside courtyard. Having the dance outside was the popular choice of the Student Council because of the airflow and space that the students could have to dance. With a stellar DJ and plenty of water and snacks to go around, Wood’s homecoming dance had exceptional ratings from students.

Overall, Archbishop Wood’s homecoming was a huge success! Next up: Prom!

Scream Season One

Vinnie Tate '23

In 1996, Wes Craven wrote an astounding movie which managed to both be a satire to the then overworked horror/slasher genre and yet, still stay honest in its portrayal of slashers at the time. A movie that spawned four sequels, one of the most iconic slasher killers in history and is generally regarded as one of the best horror flicks of all time. This review is not about that movie but it’s distant cousin of a tv show: Scream: The MTV TV Series.

Before starting, it needs to be known that this show which spanned between 2015 and 2019 is not a continuation of the Scream movie series. No, Scream: The MTV TV Series, or STS, is a reimagining of the original movie’s story. Instead of Sidney, there’s Emma. Instead of Casey, there’s Nina. Instead of Randy, there’s Noah and so on and so forth. Only a few characters are wholly unique, such as Audrey, Emma’s childhood friend who was bullied because of her sexuality, Riley, essentially just a love interest for Noah and Emma’s mom who’s a coroner. More characters who are more unique and based on characters from later entries in the movie series are introduced in the later season but this review will only encompass season one because… we'll keep reading.

In episode one, we open with Nina and Tyler who just posted a video of Audrey kissing a girl named Rachel on social media. Tyler drops Nina off but immediately starts texting her. This whole opening scene is pretty obvious for most Scream fans. Nina flirts with him, finds out something is up and badabing badaboom “Ghostface” kills them both. It’s a fine scene immediately ruined by the new ghostface mask which looks laughably bad. It’s meant to look more like a surgical mask but unfortunately it’s just stupid and ugly. The original ghostface mask is so iconic because it's just a costume anyone could wear. In the movie, it's meant to show how anyone could be a killer because it's a mystery. The Brandon James mask, as it will later be called, does not have that same effect. The rest of the episode is pretty standard and introduces the cast. Emma is the generic nice girl who is friends with the popular kids. Brooke’s the mean girl, Riley is also the nice one but she’s not the main character so talks less, Will is Emma’s “always do the right thing” boyfriend, Jake is his girl obsessed best friend, and Nina and Tyler were also a part of this friend group. We also meet Audrey who’s main traits are anger and not wanting to be called gay, Noah who’s a nerd but also annoying, Rachel who goes to a different school so she doesn’t matter and Kieran who’s the hot new guy with a mysterious past who’s the sheriff’s son. Immediately, they learn about Nina’s death but strangely, Tyler’s body isn’t found. They have a whole discussion in english class with Mr. Branson who’s just used so that Noah can explain the satire of the story and why it’s really cool. This makes it not really cool and screams, haha, that they wanted Randy Two. I want Randy One. The scene ends and OH MY GOD THEY ARE DOING A RIVERDALE. Brooke and Branson are together, and it’s icky to watch. They all go to a party to remember Nina and it’s revealed that Will slept with Nina while on a break with Emma. Emma feels disgusted that her boyfriend kind of cheated on her, so she cheats on him with Kieran. God I hate Emma. Kieran drives her home and uh oh, the sheriff is sleeping with the mom. Glad the writers room found a way to make this more uncomfortable.

This episode was pretty bad. The characters are all worse than their original counterparts. The only exception is the STS original characters. The STS original characters suck. To not muddy this review down with a summary, the killer keeps killing people, they find out who it is and the show ends. If that sounds interesting to you, check it out. There are three seasons on Netflix and the second season only made me regret this idea twice.

To be completely honest, the show isn’t the worst. Without spoilers, the killer is only incredibly predictable when you watch the first few episodes. In fact, the killer is so predictable that I ranked every character based on their likelihood of being the killer and season two revealed that my second and third place characters were in some way related to and/or helping the killer. Not many of the characters are likable. Horribly enough, the stereotypical mean girl and her meathead love interest are the only ones I really liked. No, not the teacher. Brooke and Jake are genuinely great because their actors are having fun. It doesn’t seem like pulling teeth with every delivery and they’re so bat crazy insane you have to love them. Noah would be on this list too if every time he opened his mouth he didn’t just explain everything like the viewer is a toddler. One positive though, is the kills. They’re creative, they’re bloody, they’re shocking. This is a theme season two drops. Why am I not reviewing season two? Three reasons: One, I didn’t have the time to watch season three and it felt wrong to do two thirds of the show. Two, it was spoiled for me pretty early on and that kinda killed my interest. Three, it’s really bad. The good characters stay great and even a few of the new ones are likable but the original cast makes you want to rip your eyes out and use them to plug your ears. Even in season one they vary from boring to cringe worthy to actively harmful to my state of mind. If you like TV so bad it’s good, check it out. It’s much more enjoyable when you realize how stupid everything is and just enjoy The Jake.

Dan Harris '23

The Scream Franchise, now encompassing 5 movies, is known for its meta humor and whodunnit nature. The original Scream (1996) is my favorite horror movie and turned the genre on its head. The characters know all the classic horror villains and tropes that we do which leads to more intelligent characters and more twists. Ghostface is such a good villain because he’s just a regular guy. In some ways that’s a little scary since he’s the most realistic horror killer, but it also leads to a lot of comedy since the characters, mainly Sydney Prescott, constantly get the better of him in fights. He’s just a dude, like if you throw a bottle at him he’ll get hurt and he’ll run away. Scream 2 is a sequel that does the series justice as the didn’t miss a beat with the kills and the comedy. The only bad thing to say about it is that Ghostface lacks a little depth compared to the original. Scream 3 was laughable in all the worst ways. The kills were unrealistic and the plot device in this installment legitimately angered me as it makes no sense. Ghostface can mimic other people’s voices in order to let the plot progress and give a cheap reason to have characters collide. They also tried to have a profound ending and it simply didn’t work for me. Scream 4 was a return to form for the series but not entirely. The stupid plot device from Scream 3 is no more, but the red herring characters have escalated to an unfathomable level. Characters will do the creepiest thing just to make them suspicious and never bring it up again. I was very worried when Scream 5 was coming out as I was scared of another Halloween reboot that didn’t live up to expectations, especially since the original director, Wes Craven, had died years earlier. I thought this would really hurt his series of movies but it broke my expectations in the best possible way. It really felt like the original two installments in tone and the reveal at the end was very shocking, easily better than the last two movies. I’d give the original 4.8/5, an amazing movie to rewatch over and over every year. Scream 2 is a 4.5/5 for me. It does well what the original does well but Ghostface was lacking a little. Scream 3 was a large dip in quality, a 2/5 if I’m being honest. The voice device really bothered me and the killer wasn’t very compelling. Scream 4 is a 3.5/5, it is a good horror movie but doesn’t do anything that makes me love it. I did think the twist at the end was good though, definitely better than Scream 3. Scream 5 is a 4/5, it defied my expectations and gave a compelling cast with compelling killers. Overall the series gets a 4/5 for me, it redefined what the horror genre would be for years to come and still holds up well to this day.