'The Sticky' taps real-life maple syrup heist for series about unseen side of Quebec

Actors Guillaume Cyr and Chris Diamantopoulos (right) are shown in a scene from the television series "The Sticky." (The Canadian Press/HO-Jan Thijs)

Toronto-born actor Chris Diamantopoulos says he always seeks projects that are shot and set in Canada but has often been put off by the way his country is portrayed on American TV.

“Typically, when you hear about a quintessentially Canadian show, you get these sorts of Canadian parodies – you've got the moose, you've got the beaver, you've got the 'sorry,' you've got the 'aboot,'” he reflects during a call from his home in Los Angeles.

His new series “The Sticky” taps into yet another distinctly Canadian staple by setting the action in Quebec's maple syrup industry, but Diamantopoulos says the Prime Video dramedy offers a refreshingly offbeat story that doesn’t lean on stale stereotypes.

“It shows us a part of Canada that we've never seen before as viewing audiences — this sort of Québécois, dark, criminal underbelly," says Diamantopoulos, whose past credits include the HBO comedy "Silicon Valley."

He says he hopes the series demonstrates that Canada has "gritty, layered stories" worth telling on a global scale.

Its U.S. creators Brian Donovan and Ed Herro drew inspiration from the infamous Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist, a months-long criminal operation in 2011 and 2012, when criminals made off with $18.7 million worth of maple syrup from the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers, which controls 77 per cent of the world's maple syrup supply.

The show follows Ruth Landry, a frustrated maple syrup farmer played by seasoned character actor Margo Martindale, who plans to steal millions of dollars' worth of syrup from the bureaucrats attempting to seize her farm. She hatches the plot with the help of Diamantopoulos’ low-level mobster Mike and Quebec actor Guillaume Cyr’s docile security guard Remy. Jamie Lee Curtis executive produced and appears later in the series, which premieres Friday.

Donovan says he was drawn to story of "the big rich, powerful people versus the workers."

"Just the idea that the people doing the work have bigger people trying to take money out of their pockets. That's something everyone experiences in one way or another," Donovan says in a recent call from Los Angeles.

“The Sticky” joins several Canadian originals on Prime Video’s slate, which includes new survivalist reality series “Hard North,” in-development true crime docuseries “In Cold Water: The Shelter Bay Mystery” and three upcoming projects by Ottawa comedian Tom Green.

Donovan says Prime Video's investment in Canadian content comes amid an increasingly crowded TV landscape.

“In the U.S., we’re just oversaturated, so I think there's a desire to tell interesting stories about interesting places and be specific about who you're talking about,” he says.

“It's a great opportunity to highlight new people who there haven't been shows based on before. I've never seen a show about Montreal the way that we made it.”

Donovan and Herro are both American, a fact Herro acknowledges might raise doubts about their ability to craft a story that feels authentically Canadian.

“We're not Canadian, so that comes with a whole bunch of carpetbagging concerns and everything. I get it,” he says.

Donovan says the duo made sure to hire an all-Canadian crew and mostly Canadian cast, with the exception of Martindale and Curtis. They also recruited a cultural consultant to make sure the show passed “the authenticity test.”

“We went in knowing that we were not the experts and we should talk to the experts on the ground. We wanted it to be an authentic story that people from Canada and specifically Quebec would gravitate toward and recognize themselves in.”

Donovan says he and Herro also constantly sought Cyr’s input to make sure the series — shot in and around Montreal — felt Québécois.

“I said to them at the start, ‘If you want to be realistic, the whole series will be in French,’" recalls Cyr.

“But you don't want that because you want it to be a global show. So how can we put some French flavour on an anglophone series? OK, the slurs will be in French.”

Cyr says he provided input on everything from the dialogue to the music to the casting of beloved Québécois actor Guy Nadon as the head of the provincial syrup barons.

"It's kind of the first time that the Quebec flavour is being shown worldwide," says Cyr.

"It's not another story about a billionaire who lives in New York. It's a story about three normal people who desperately want more in life. It's a very universal theme."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 4, 2024.