In 2011 and 2012, over 9,500 barrels of maple syrup were smuggled out of Quebec’s strategic syrup reserve, with a value of over $18 million, then replaced by empty barrels. Eventually, the perpetrators of the Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist, all men, were apprehended. The heist is the basis of a new dramedy streaming on Prime Video. But nothing about the story actually happened in real life.
Opening Shot: A small puddle of maple syrup is on the floor of a cabin, with the lid of the barrel that’s on top of it not fitting well.
The Gist: Two cops, Teddy Green (Gita Miller) and Don Leblanc (Tristan D. Lalla) go in, searching for something or someone. They’re about to leave when they hear “La Cucaracha” playing as a ringtone. They open the barrel and at first see nothing; Don even takes a taste of the syrup. That’s when they see the face of the dead man that’s been stuffed inside.
Fourty-eight hours earlier, Ruth Landry (Margo Martindale) sees a woman in uniform messing with the taps on her maple trees; apparently she’s been reported for improperly operating the syrup farm. It’s in the name of her husband Martin (Joseph Bellerose), who’s been in a coma for months. Ruth has kept the sap flowing while taking care of him at their house because, well, sap means syrup and syrup is money.
We then see Remy Bouchard (Guillaume Cyr) waking up on his 40th birthday, greeted by his dad. He’s going to be making a presentation at work, so he’s concentrating on that. Mike Byrne (Chris Diamantopoulos), a Boston-based organized crime thug, goes to a biker bar to collect the monthly “insurance” payment and is mocked by the owner, even after Mike shows the guy that he’s packing heat.
Ruth storms into the offices of the AEQ, the association that used to be a farmers’ collective but has become more of a micromanager and harasser of those same farmers. The head of that office, Leonard Gauthier, Sr. (Guy Nadon) has installed his son Leo (Mickaël Gouin) as an heir apparent of sorts, but Ruth dismisses him as a “secretary.” Leonard says his hands are tied, but offers to take the farm of her hands for $300,000, something she knows he’s been wanting to do for years.
Remy is head of security at AEQ’s maple syrup reserve, and when he tries to make a presentation to either Leonard or Leo, he’s dismissed, even though he and Leo are lifelong friends. Leonard basically thinks he’s a moron. At this point, he wants to step up the smuggling operation he has going out of the reserve’s storage. But his partner, Orval Steeks (Jason Cavalier), thinks its too risky to take out more than the one barrel per month they’ve been doing.
When Mike comes to visit Ruth and Martin, Ruth asks if he can take some of her barrels and sell them on the black market. He made a promise to Martin, though, not to illegally sell his syrup. However, when Remy approaches him about setting up a smuggling operation out of the reserve’s storage area, with the aim to steal $1 million dollars’ worth of the sticky stuff, Mike sees a loophole in his promise. He just needs to pay a visit to Remy’s buddy Orval first.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Sticky, created by Brian Donovan and Ed Herro (Jason Blum’s Blumhouse is also one of the show’s executive producers, as is Jamie Lee Curtis, who will show up onscreen later in the season), reminds us of the first season of the series version of Fargo.
Our Take: Donovan and Herro based The Sticky on the very real Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist of 2011, but take pains to mention at the beginning of each episode that this is “Absolutely not the true story” of that heist. That’s a good thing, because then the creators and the show’s writers are able to craft a story that has more craziness and behavioral extremes. And it leaves room for yet another tour-de-force performance by Margo Martindale.
In the first 27-minute episode alone, a body is found in a maple syrup barrel, and Ruth chops down one of her trees for the sole purpose of dragging it through town and slamming it into AEQ headquarters. If you look up the actual true story of the heist, things were not nearly that eventful. So using the heist as a basis for an entirely made-up story was a clever move.
We also get a good picture of the show’s three protagonists in that 27 minutes. As we said, Martindale is her usual intense and funny self, cursing her way through her scenes and projecting anger as well as fear of what will be next for her and Martin if she loses the farm. Remy is tried of being dismissed and knows that, given he’s the AEQ’s only security, the syrup reserve is sitting there unprotected.
Mike acts like a tough guy in Quebec but is really just a lackey of his bosses back in Boston. Let’s give Chris Diamantopoulos his due here; he channels Bryan Cranston at times when he’s trying to be the enforcer he is (in fact, Cranston recommended him for this role), but perfectly switches to his true beaten-down self when faced with having to serve his bosses back home. Given how many memorable supporting and guest roles we’ve seen Diamantopoulos in over the years, it’s great to see him in a co-lead role here.
Because the show is filmed in the Montreal area, there is a real sense of place. In Quebec during the winter, as the tapping season comes to a close, it’s cold, drab and snowy. And, given the fact that many of the roles are played by French Canadian actors, that makes the show’s sense of place even stronger.
The Sticky isn’t gut-grabbing funny, but there’s enough funny stuff going on to keep things moving, and Martindale’s fierce performance is always riveting to watch. Given how silly the idea of a maple syrup heist is, we’re intrigued by the direction the show’s creators are going to take this story.
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: Mike knocks on Orval’s door, with a baseball bat behind his back. Then we see a mid-credits scene of the dripping syrup barrel.
Sleeper Star: In the second episode, Detective Valérie Nadeau (Suzanne Clément) shows up from Montreal to help the local cops investigate Orval’s murder. She’s already over it by the time she shows up at police station.
Most Pilot-y Line: A little bit more of an explanation of what the AEQ is and why there’s a syrup reserve might have been enlightening for us south-of-the-border types here in the US, but it wasn’t 100% necessary.
Our Call: STREAM IT. An intense and funny performance by Margo Martindale is the highlight of The Sticky, but the idea that this crazy heist story could go just about anywhere is what’s the most intriguing thing about it.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.