‘Darkwing Duck’ strikes back, Ashley Padilla and ‘SNL’ return, and that’s a Pretty Pink Baja Blast

Hello! Welcome to the Sept. 26, 2026, edition of the Saturday Wrap. Here’s everything you might have missed from The Omnicosm.

Are you obsessed with Olivia Rodrigo’s Pretty Pink Baja Blast?

It’s finally here. After going live at Live Más Cafés at the end of last month, Olivia Rodrigo’s You Seem Pretty Pink for a Baja Blast made its nationwide debut at Taco Bell on Thursday. 

“One of my favorite drinks ever is a Mountain Dew Baja Blast, so I genuinely cannot believe You Seem Pretty Pink for a Baja Blast is real,” Rodrigo said when her limited-edition flavor was announced on Aug. 29.

I believe Rodrigo when she says that Baja Blast is one of her favorite drinks ever. Fans were able to try Pretty Pink Baja Blast at her Daisy Chain Fields music festival, with The New York Times reporting that Taco Bell “offered plenty of flowery photo ops for fans who endured the long lines to sip Rodrigo’s cheekily named custom soda brew, You Seem Pretty Pink for a Baja Blast.” (Read more)

Are Vampire Noodles good enough to die for?

Thanks to Cup Noodles, I’m hypothetically living the high life in a dorm stocked with plenty of Cup Noodles, an electric kettle and a rapid egg cooker. (In reality, I’m 40 and sitting on a sofa my wife and I bought from Ashley Furniture.) This Halloween, I’m going to take that hypothetical dorm to a frightful new level with Cup Noodles Vampire Noodles.

“Halloween is the perfect moment to create something unexpected, and Vampire Noodles does exactly that,” Priscila Stanton, senior vice president of marketing at Nissin, said in the company’s announcement. “The blood-red transformation and bold hot garlic flavor turn an everyday meal into a memorable Halloween experience. We’re giving fans a surprising new way to celebrate the season with Cup Noodles.” (Read more)

With the promise that it’s ‘NOW MORE DELICIOUS,’ I gave Liquid Death Sparkling Energy a try

For most of my adult life, I didn’t drink coffee. I’m sure that sounds shocking, but I was never interested in starting off my day with a hot beverage. Instead, I love the cool, carbonated hit of an energy drink. Amps. Kickstarts. The occasional Red Bull. A Monster Zero when all other options were exhausted.

I start my days with an iced coffee or cold brew now, but I still probably drink an energy drink or two each week. Kickstarts are getting harder to find, but I was intrigued by a newish entry in the world of energy drinks: Liquid Death Sparkling Energy. (Read more)

Holy crap, look at the massive Capri Sun Big Pouch

If your kid is like mine, they can down a Capri Sun in like ten seconds. At that point, they’ll ask for another pouch. And while we do have a healthy stash of Capri Suns in our fridge, it’s always a hassle to go get another one. (At least our daughter knows how to punch the straw through the pouch on her own.)

But what if there was a solution to this problem? What if there were a bigger pouch? You could even call something like that the Capri Sun Big Pouch ... (Read more)

Is Goldfish Protein the snack that smiles back?

The last time Snackology checked in on the world of Goldfish, the iconic crackers had teamed up with Pokémon for a series of limited-edition releases. Now the fish-shaped crackers have teamed up with a different craze sweeping the nation: Protein.

Two flavors of Goldfish Protein will start hitting stores next month, offering 6 grams of protein in Cheddar and Pizza varieties. (Read more)

It drives me bananas how much potential Snickers Banana Nut Bread wasted

After missing out on M&M’s Banana Nut Bread this summer, I made it my mission to track down Snickers Banana Nut Bread. I have no idea why banana nut bread is having a moment, but after my Harris Teeter never had the M&M’s in stock, I’ve spent the past week or so checking any Walgreens I come across for the Snickers take on the flavor. (Read more)

Pucker up, it’s Poppi Sour Apple

It might be pumpkin spice season, but Snackology continues to advocate for a shift to apple and/or apple cider as the flavor of fall. (Planters is on board.) And while I don’t think Poppi released Poppi Sour Apple as a limited-edition fall flavor, the timing is perfect. (Read more)

Everything you need to know going into SNL Season 52

One week from tonight, we’ll all be sitting on our couches, waiting for the local news to end so that Jalen Brunson can host the first episode of SNL’s fifty-second season. Well, maybe I’ll be on my couch working on the newsletter as the clock creeps toward 1 a.m. while loyal The Cold Open readers will get the scoop on the season premiere the following morning.

No matter your preferred mode of watching SNL, the show returns next Saturday. Between the end of Season 51 and the beginning of Season 52, Lorne Michaels made a few slight cast adjustments, but nothing like we saw after the show’s milestone fiftieth season. (Read more)

• Jalen Brunson has the key to the city and is ready to unlock a new SNL season: John Higgins and Martin Herlihy might be gone from SNL, but Please Don’t Destroy lives on through Ben Marshall. Now in his second season as a full cast member, Marshall got to join NBA Finals MVP Jalen Brunson in the first host promo for Season 52. (Read more)

Ashley Padilla reveals arrest history, Survivor dreams to Amy Poehler

We’re less than a week away from SNL returning for its 52nd season, and its biggest star is making headlines as she promotes the upcoming premiere. 

Ashley Padilla revealed during Amy Poehler’s Good Hang podcast’s Tuesday episode that she has a criminal record thanks to the time she hid from the cops in a rose bush for four hours. 

“And when they pulled me out, I said — and they wrote this down, they wrote this down, it was in the police report — I said, ‘It's about time you motherfuckers caught me,’” Padilla told Poehler. (Read more)

• The 7 biggest SNL sketches from Ashley Padilla’s first season: When Season 52 goes live on Saturday night, it’ll be the beginning of Ashley Padilla’s third season on the show. If you were watching last season, you know this was a formality. Padilla dominated last season. It didn’t matter that she was a featured cast member. But what was Padilla’s mark on SNL before her breakout sophomore season? (Read more)

Did I will the new Darkwing Duck series into existence?

I did it. I made a new Darkwing Duck show happen. After Popculturology asked “where is the Terror That Flaps in the Night?” at the beginning of September, we got news this week that Disney+ is ready to get dangerous.

OK, so maybe this is the Darkwing Duck series that Seth Rogen and his buddies have had in the works since Disney canceled the DuckTales reboot, but the timing sure makes me look like I’m on top of things, huh? (Read more)

Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil blows away franchise opening weekend record

The newest Resident Evil movie had a historic opening weekend for the franchise. Not only is its $60 million debut easily the biggest for a Resident Evil movie — Resident Evil: Afterlife’s $26.7 million was the previous high mark — but the reboot made more in North America this weekend than any previous Resident Evil movie did over its entire domestic run. By the time we get actual weekend numbers on Monday, there’s a solid chance Weapons director Zach Cregger’s entry into the series will have actually topped Afterlife’s $60.1 million haul. (Read more)

The Omnicosm is written and produced by Bill Kuchman.
Copyediting by Tim Kuchman.

Get the full The Omnicosm experience. Add Snackology, Popculturology and The Cold Open to your subscription via your account settings.

Go to your account