3 Writing Lessons From TV's Wildest True Crime Adaptation

'The Sticky' showrunner Brian Donovan crafted a sticky-sweet dramedy from Canada’s quirkiest heist

by Jo Light on December 4, 2024

As the showrunner of Amazon Prime Video's The Sticky, Brian Donovan has turned one of Canada's most bizarre true crimes—the maple syrup heist of 2011, during which thieves siphoned syrup worth over 18 million Canadian dollars—into a series that might be television's most deliciously unique caper comedy.

The series stars Margo Martindale and Chris Diamantopoulos, as well as Jamie Lee Curtis, who also executive produces. Donovan and Ed Herro co-wrote the pilot and oversaw the show.

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A veteran writer whose credits include the series The Neighbors and American Housewife, Donovan reveals how he transformed this sticky-fingered scheme into a story that taps into interesting characters and humor. Donovan tells ScreenCraft how he approaches plot, how acting can help your writing, and how you should (and shouldn’t) write dramedy.

A Guiding Principle for Plot

Whether he’s on a solo project or co-writing something with Herro, Donovan says his main goal is always to “write something that no one has seen before.”

It’s no small feat to aspire to this goal. Surprising your audience is difficult, which is why it’s important to be an educated writer with diverse tastes. Read lots of scripts, watch tons of film and TV, and don’t get stagnant or comfortable.

In his writers’ room, he said when anything felt too familiar or rote, they cut it.

“We were trying very hard to make it surprising in every instance,” he said. “And you can do that in a million different ways. You can have a conventional conversation where you’re planning a heist. That scene has been in a billion shows. But has it been between two people who are ice fishing in the middle of a Canadian lake? No, probably not.”

Of course, this is a true story, so Donovan acknowledged that the team also wanted to honor the truth of these characters. Real life is sloppy, and problems are sometimes solved in messy ways.

“How would people who’ve never stolen $20 million worth of syrup figure out how to do it?” he said. “That led us to a lot of fun problems and fun predicaments that we just embraced. Run toward the weird, hard answers, and that will always give you the best scene that you can have.”

This, he said, could also be a good solution to writer’s block. When you feel stuck, consider what a person (or you) would actually do in the situation you’ve created in your story.

Three people sitting behind a couch in a living room in 'The Sticky.'

'The Sticky' (2024)

How Acting Can Help a Writer

If you’re a writer, especially in the comedy space, you’ve probably heard the advice that an acting or improv background can help you be a stronger writer.

Donovan, who came up in a New York comedy cohort that included Nick Kroll, started as an actor and fell into writing through one of his connections. Although he was figuring it out as he went, he’s happy where he landed—not only because writing is more stable than acting.

“It’s extremely helpful,” he said. “I approach writing from the point of view of how I did as an actor. If I didn’t have an acting background, I would be a much worse writer. I don’t know that I could do it.”

To be a storyteller means you’re often performing, particularly during pitches. But Donovan said he also uses his writing as a selling tool for talent, by writing parts he knows will resonate with other actors.

“It’s a lot easier to do that knowing how an actor approaches their craft,” he said. “What they look for in a part. It makes it a lot easier and more fun.”

This experience also helps him in the area of dialogue. He wants to write dialogue that he (and the actors) would want to say.

“The second I’m writing dialogue that is to accomplish a story task, like trying to set up backstory or trying to get out some information that the audience needs to know if it feels like ‘pipe,’ we call it, if it feels like backstory, you’re doing it wrong,” The Sticky showrunner said. “Because people don’t talk that way.”

But even if you have never gotten in front of an audience as a performer, you should aim for natural dialogue, and the words on the page should indicate to the actor how the lines should be read, either through word choice or subtext or voice.

“If I was an actor and I read this, would I know what the hell to do if I was supposed to be in this scene, from these words?” he said. “If I don’t know, I’ve got to fix it. You’ve got to be leading the actors to the story that you want to tell.”

A woman pointing at the people sitting behind the couch in 'The Sticky.'

'The Sticky' (2024)

Don’t Try to Make Something Funny

In all his discussions here about tone and balancing the drama of a story with humor, we wondered what advice he would give a writer trying their hand at similar dramedy in their own work.

He said you should never “try to make something funny.” Instead, fall back on your characters.

If you’re writing a story with conflict (which you probably are), then your characters will be at odds. Natural humor will develop out of that bickering, he said. That was the case in The Sticky, which features characters that all want to achieve their criminal goals in different ways. Let them argue, he advised.

He added, “Try to find characters that may have humor to them that you understand, and put them in humoring situations, and then just let them be honest and let them act the way they would, and the humor will come.”

Honesty in writing is very important to him. Honesty will help you find humor and story.

“And the humor will come! We’re inherently funny, contradictory, ridiculous people,” he said. “So just tell the truth and the fun will be there, but the drama will be there too.”

Focus less on telling jokes and more on keeping your humor truthful, with characters providing that driving force, and you’ll come out with relatable, surprising comedy.