‘The Sticky’ Season 1 Review – A Black Comedy Of Sweet Deception

The Sticky has shades of Fargo. It’s a streaming thriller that takes real chances with its story—chances most movies or shows wouldn’t dare to attempt. The series is thrilling, darkly funny, and incredibly interesting. You’ll forget it’s based on the true story of The Great Maple Syrup Heist. That’s right. During a time when a shortage made maple syrup more valuable than gold, it became a prized commodity.

Produced by Academy Award-winning actress Jamie Lee Curtis and Jason Blum, head of Blumhouse Productions, The Sticky has a lonely, desolate atmosphere. It quickly heats up with a tale of ambition, revenge, and obsession. The story is frighteningly entertaining. Plus, one of the world’s greatest actors, Emmy Award-winner Margot Martindale (Justified), leads the cast with a wicked performance—one of the year’s best.

The story follows Ruth Landry (the fantastic Martindale), a woman surviving by tapping the sweet goodness of her backyard maple trees. Ruth’s husband, Martin, is in a coma, and she has been nursing him at home. However, the man who runs the Maple Syrup Association, Leonard (Guy Nadon), is trying to steal her trees right out from under her. How? By claiming that only Martin’s name is on the operator’s license.

Since Martin is incapacitated, he cannot oversee the extraction of that Canadian liquid gold from her local saps. Leonard, however, is charitable. He offers to buy her land for a couple hundred thousand dollars to take it off her hands. A family friend, Mike (Chris Diamantopoulos), is on the outs with a notorious crime family. He refuses to help sell her maple syrup on the black market.

That is until he is approached by Remy (Guillaume Cyr), a security guard at a warehouse holding millions of gallons of sticky stuff without any cameras. Remy proposes they steal it all for themselves. The trio soon finds out that their plan may come with unforeseen consequences. For one, how do they not get caught? The other is, how do they move the gooey commodity illegally? Finally, how do they trust each other?

According to the L.A. Times, a couple of thousand tons of Quebec maple syrup, worth $18.7 million (or over 18 million “loonies”), calling it “The Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist.” Based loosely on this event, where worldwide shortage made the Canadian province the Colombia of breakfast toppings, tells a tale of people looking for their piece of the pie. Trust me, as you get older and as time is running out, you can relate.

Martindale’s performance crackles with comic brilliance but somehow always finds the moral center that gives the series not only its juice but also surprisingly moving. Diamantopoulos’s character is bearded as a straight man but finds a surprising depth hidden. Cyr is hilarious but poignant, offering enough juxtaposition with its cynicism to be jaw-droppingly effective.

The Sticky is a high-stakes tale worth watching because it is universally relatable, without some eye-rolling bank heist that defies common sense. These are working-class characters that are incredibly complex. Then, throw them in the middle of a high-tension and suspenseful story as unpredictable as any this year. Not to mention, writers Brian Donovan and Ed Herrocold and calculated moral ambiguity are brilliantly refreshing. We won’t dare to spoil anything else here. Just sit back, enjoy this sticky wicket, and ask questions later.

The Sticky is now available to stream exclusively on Prime Video.