'The Sticky' review: Margo Martindale maple syrup heist caper falls flat

WHAT IT'S ABOUT Ruth Landry (Margo Martindale), a Canadian maple syrup farmer, is furious with the local kingpin (veteran Canadian actor Guy Nadon) who controls her region's syrup supply — Ruth's supply included. So she's intrigued when a mobbed-up friend from Boston, Mike Byrne (Chris Diamantopoulos), comes to her with a proposal: How about ripping off the warehouse which contains thousands of barrels of maple syrup? Mike's got an accomplice too, Remy Bouchard (Guillaume Cyr), who's also an insider at the warehouse, as the only guard on duty. They set in motion a plan — where lots (and lots) of things go wrong.

Jamie Lee Curtis, who is executive producer, also appears in one of the six episodes of "The Sticky," which is loosely based on a real-life syrup heist.

MY SAY There are actually the makings of some interesting and profoundly Canadian elements to this tale. (The TV series itself? We'll get to that.) Back in 2011 and '12, a couple of guys stole about 3,000 tons of maple syrup from a warehouse in Quebec, with a street value of about $18 million. The Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist this was called, and after everyone had a good laugh, they then asked: But why maple syrup?

Well, if you've ever been to a supermarket, you obviously know the answer. It costs a fortune. But really, come on: Why maple syrup? A Netflix true crime series ("Dirty Money") asked the same question back in 2018 and learned that this was all part of a larger social issue pitting moneyed interests against working class ones, of free markets versus "price-fixed" markets.

It had everything, or at least something, and all this story had to do was wait patiently until some Hollywood slick showed up in the North Country to turn this into mass entertainment. But — alas — the wait continues, and probably forever will. No matter how you slice this, or pour this, maple syrup is simply not a compelling, or menacing, enough hook for a crime series, however farcical. Compelling for pancakes, yes, TV no.

The creators obviously knew this, which is why "The Sticky" was turned into a fictional comic heist. They had plenty (mostly movie) models to work from, like "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" or "The Italian Job." There are hundreds really, and the formulas are pretty much the same: Get a few morons together whose greed far outweighs their collective intellectual capacity, then let the fun begin!

Same elements here: Three dopes, a lot of greed, some Keystone Kops, and a sinister figure from the Boston mob (Curtis, in a criminally underdeveloped role). What could go wrong? Everything and, as it turns out, way too much.

 Each of the six "chapters," or episodes begin with an entirely redundant bumper that reads "This is absolutely not the true story of the Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist." Clearly not, because the characters are too unformed, the story too careless, the payoff (a word loosely applied here) too abrupt, although the end is obviously a setup for a second season.

Good capers necessarily need that touch of the plausible — that the mousetrap which will inevitably spring on those who set it has some ingenious angles, even if the "geniuses" who set it do not. There is no mousetrap in "The Sticky" — just three blind mice.

Yet here, at least, is your obligatory nod to the great Margo Martindale who couldn't ruin a role if she tried. Ruth has some funny moments, at first anyway. If only there were more.

BOTTOM LINE Skip "The Sticky"