The Sticky

A collection of oddball characters in terrible situations trying to manage a heist of maple syrup to salvage their financial problems. Ruth, whose husband is in a coma, has lost her right to sell maple syrup to the cartel, run by Leonard. It seems her husband owns the rights to harvest the syrup, so she has been fined for using his rights illegally. Remy, sort of a sadsack character is the guard at the warehouse where all the syrup is stored and was sneaking a barrel or two out of the warehouse at night, with a friend who suddenly gets killed. He is the only guard for the entire stock of maple syrup. Since Ruth got into financial trouble the only way forward was stealing on a much larger scale, and she and Remy brought Mike into the scheme. Mike comes off as a power who can get big things done. The truth is quite different. And with all the clashes of personalities and mix ups, it almost becomes a Keystone cops caper. Each time they seem to have things under control, snags happen, and their approach to trying to solve it is a great part of the humor. A cop-out is that is leads to a second season, so there are loose ends galore. And as made very clear, this is not how the actual theft was done. So this is a funny fictional account. And a very interesting cameo appearance.

This is a refreshing crime comedy series! Centering the plot around maple syrup is quite ingenious and the decision for 30 minutes per episode works quite well. The scripting holds up for most of the time, sometimes you can hear the keyboards of the authors clicking.

But what makes this series really worth watching is the casting: They are all doing an impressive job, highlights are the leading role Margo Martindale and, as always, the impeccable Jamie Lee Curtis. For those two alone, my recommendation holds up.

However, be prepared for a truly disappointing last episode of season one for the incomprehensible decision to cut the story line right in the middle of the climax.

As Episode 1 of "The Sticky" (2024 release from Canada; 6 episodes of about 30 min each) opens, we are reminded that "This is absolutely not the true story of the Great Maple Syrup Heist", which took place in 2011. In the opening scenes, the local Quebec police is called to quell a disturbance, only to find the body of a man in a maple barrel, murdered for reasons unknown. We then are introduced to Ruth, who tends to her maple tree farm but as it turns out she doesn't have the proper license for this, and she may lose the farm... At this point we are less than 10 minutes into Episode 1.

Couple of comments: This is a dark comedy series from Canada, more specifically from Quebec, where maple syrup is big business. I have no idea to what extent this mini-series accurately reflects what happened in the Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist of 2011, but frankly it's not even relevant. The reason is that this mini-series is absolutely hilarious and fun from start to finish. I laughed out loud quite a few times throughout these 6 episodes as this mini-series is quirky, dry, and even absurd at times (in the best possible way). The no-star ensemble cast is stellar. Comedy, good comedy, is incredibly difficult to do, but this mini-series delivers.

"The Sticky" started streaming on Amazin Prime last month, and I just discovered it. I watched all 6 episodes in a single setting. THis mini-series is currently rated 82% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. If you are in the mood for a quirky dark comedy starring our neighbors of the north, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

Beautiful setting, and most jokes land.

Ham acting by both Margo M and Chris D. Are both a strength and a weakness to the show sometimes adding to the humor and sometimes taking away from the credibility of the premise.

A lot of the actions by Mike were really questionable and some confrontation between characters feel repetitive. I think what would've really helped is flesh out both Ruth and Mike's characters much more in earlier episodes making it a total of 8 episodes. That's why sometimes the series might feel just a bit underbaked.

Ep5 featuring Jamie Lee C is obviously the highlight of the entire series. Mad fun half hour!

Overall Holiday Season is usually a total lull of programming barring trash family movies . WATCH THIS and increase its chances of a renewal !

This series starts off so well and then sort of... tanks.

I didn't realise this was "season 1". I was lead to believe it was a full story told in 6 parts. Because of that, it's both not enough -leaves you hanging- and is stretched too thin.

The casting and production design are terrific, but it's like the original Twin Peaks: once the "big crime" is solved, the story's over. Trying to draw it out with extraneous subplots becomes painful no matter how much we enjoy spending time with these quirky characters.

I realise I should have soaked this review in syrupy jokes, but maple trees are always sad because they're so sappy...