Content Consumed: Derry Girls, Buzzfeed puppies, and Spotify Wrapped

Happy Thursday! Today, I’m reading When Paris Went Dark, watching Thursday Night Football and Season 3 of Ramy, and listening to Celebrity Memoir Book Club’s Patreon episode.

But in today’s Content Consumed, we’re chatting about…
😭 The Derry Girls finale—and its awful cameo
🐶 Ryan Reynolds, Rob McElhenney, and Buzzfeed puppies
🎧 My Spotify Wrapped predictions
⚡️ Angus Cloud and Rockstar Energy

Re: That Derry Girls finale cameo

If Derry Girls has a million fans, then I’m one of them.
If Derry Girls has one fan, then I’m that one.
If Derry Girls has no fans, that means I’m dead.

For the last ten minutes of the Derry Girls season 3 finale—which was also the series finale—I was absolutely sobbing. Choking up, tears running down my face, as Erin and her family went to place their votes for the Good Friday Agreement referendum. So poignant and such a great finale, especially after a touching moment where Michelle reckons with the idea of her IRA-linked paramilitary brother getting out of prison.

It wrapped up all 3 seasons perfectly and left us wanting not a crumb more. But they almost ruined it.

Why the hell was Chelsea Clinton the last face I saw in the last episode of Derry Girls?

Listen, there have been good cameos before. Liam Neeson was a great and unobtrusive presence as a police inspector earlier in the season. But this Chelsea Clinton cameo in “PRESENT DAY — NEW YORK” felt so wrong. Like Ed Sheeran in Game of Thrones level of wrong. Worse, actually. Thank god I’m not the only fan who thought so.

It interrupted a perfect and serene moment of hope and youthful joy, all to show the daughter of an ex-U.S.-president for what I’m sure the showrunners thought would be a fun and cool cameo. Just really, really poor timing.

Other than that, a banger of a show that I highly recommend.

Ryan Reynolds, Rob McElhenney, and Buzzfeed puppies

Before you say anything: I am mostly off the Buzzfeed train, but I always appreciate their puppy interviews. And I know! I’ve called Ryan Reynolds cheesy! But he can be funny. And Rob McElhenney, star/showrunner of Always Sunny and Mythic Quest and Welcome to Wrexham, is one of the wittiest writers in television today. So, I have an appreciation for their Buzzfeed puppy interview, okay?!

Good bits:

• The duo rarely actually answered questions while playing with the puppies. The response to “How did it feel to visit Wrexham for the first time?” lead to an answer about how Wales could finally “take” England.
• Rob McElhenney thinks Wrexham could get to the Premier League in four years… which feels ambitious.
• “Fuck Ted Lasso”: the joint response upon being asked about a Ted Lasso cameo.
• Speaking of cameos, Rob vaguely suggested a role for Ryan as Mac’s boyfriend in Always Sunny. Which, to me, wouldn’t work. (Funny enough, Ted Lasso’s Jason Sudeikis *has* made an Always Sunny cameo.)
• “The Nightman Cometh” has potential for an off-Broadway production in the future. I’d buy tickets.

Call me cringe if you must. I’ll accept it. I enjoyed all 9 minutes of this video.

Spotify Wrapped: Predictions

Spotify will stop collecting your data for their annual Wrapped content on October 31, so cram in all the music you want your friends to know you listen to before then!

An absolutely wild move for them to do this only 10 days after a Taylor Swift album drop. I wonder how that’ll affect Midnight streams… wait, is Taylor colluding with Spotify? To push youngins’ who devote themselves to Spotify Wrapped results with intensive streaming before the data collection ends? Does that make sense…?

Okay, I’m getting off-track. My predictions for my own Spotify Wrapped:

• Arctic Monkeys. It’s typical for me to start playing Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not and Suck It And See and A.M. (my personal top three albums of theirs) as soon as there’s a slight September chill in the air. Their new album, The Car, comes out on the same day as Taylor Swift’s, just 10 days before Spotify stops collecting data. I’ll be traveling for 16 hours on October 26, so the odds I get enough streaming it for it to affect my Wrapped is strong.
• Harry’s House. It’s inevitable.
• “Cuff It” by Beyoncé. My favorite song off Renaissance has been on repeat for three months straight; there’s no way it doesn’t crack my top 5 songs of 2022.
• ‘MY ULTIMATE GYM PLAYLIST’. Let’s be realistic, it’s the most played playlist on my account. It’ll probably be responsible for Drake being on my top artists list.
• Spotify’s “Jazzy Morning” and Will DeFries’ “Sunday Jazz”. Between writing in the morning and reading at night, I’ve got a continual jazz playlist duo going now.
• Celebrity Memoir Book Club will stay my #1 Spotify podcast. Maybe because I listen to them the most religiously, maybe because I listen to all the others on Apple Podcasts.

Ridiculous celeb brand partnership of the week:
Angus Cloud and Rockstar Energy

Ask me who the most low-energy actor on the planet is. I’ll tell you Euphoria’s Angus Cloud. I think a lot of people would tell you Angus Cloud. His slow drawl, late reactions, the distracted (stoned?) air about him on TV, on the red carpet, in interviews.

Naturally, he’s now the face of Rockstar Energy.

Hollywood Reporter says: “The deal will see Cloud, who plays Fez on HBO’s buzzy drama from Sam Levinson, represent the brand and link up with Rockstar at a series of “one-of-a-kind” activations.” The first of those will be the Formula Drift Finals in Los Angeles, which Rockstar says “leans into Angus and Rockstar Energy’s passion for pushing the limits.”

Hmmm.

As one Twitter user commented beneath the announcement photo of Angus and Rockstar: “ngl he looks like his grandma just died.”

Alrighty! That’s it for today. Thank you for reading! I’m so close to my 100th edition. Can’t believe it. Appreciate the Day Ones for following all this time and the new folks joining for the journey.

Cheers,
Casey

P.S. Don’t forget to follow the new(ish) Content Consumed Instagram — I’m aiming for 200 followers by the end of October!

P.P.S. I wrote a longer piece this week about the symbolism and practicality of dimming the City of Light’s Eiffel Tower during Europe’s energy crisis. Give it a read.