Helen Archer | On 07, Jan 2025

The Sticky promises so much, but sadly delivers so little. Based on the true story of a maple syrup heist in 2011 – a very Canadian crime – it seems like the perfect premise for an offbeat comedy. But despite a strong cast and a storyline ripe for an unserious true crime show, it falls flat thanks to a script that lacks anything resembling humour, charm or wit. 

Created by Brian Donovan and Ed Herro, it is near impossible to watch without thinking of Fargo. Swapping a freezing Minnesota for a Québec winter, it, like the Coen Brothers’ 2014 film, features inept criminals, some random, brutal violence, and a main protagonist succumbing to financial pressure. But while Fargo insists it is a true story – it isn’t – The Sticky starts each episode asserting that this is “absolutely not the true story”: the real heist is used as a jumping off point, but the events of this six-part series are very much fictional. 

Star of the show is noted character actress Margo Martindale, who plays Ruth Landry, a woman on the edge. Caring for her husband – who is in a coma after falling out of a tree – she finds herself at the mercy of the head of the maple syrup association, who is trying to pressure her into selling her land, with increasingly lowball offers. Furious at her lot in life, and at the maple syrup association in particular, she finds herself teaming up with Remy  (Guilluame Cyr), a soft-hearted security guard, and Mike (Chris Diamantopoulos), a stranger in town who has already caused his own share of havoc. This motley crew dreams up a plan to rob the maple syrup warehouse, in much the same way it was done in real life. 

There are, of course, obstacles to overcome, not least in the form of policing duo Detective Nadeau (Suzanne Clement) and Teddy Green (Gita Miller) – though they are almost as incompetent as the criminals they are chasing. More mayhem ensues in the final couple of episodes, when Mike’s boss – played by Jamie Lee Curtis, who also has an executive producer credit – turns up to get in on the action. 

While the first couple of episodes are slow – despite their half-hour running time – it picks up pace slightly as it goes on. And yet the whole series is, ultimately, a set-up for an assumed – though yet to be announced – second season, leaving us with many loose ends and unexplained connections. It is, in fact, much like a six-episode pilot, learning its way as it goes, and it could test viewers’ patience sufficiently that there may be no real clamour for it to be renewed. All in all, it just seems like a wasted opportunity – stickier than syrup, but slow as molasses. 

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