Every character has an origin story, but sometimes, that origin is as unexpected as the character itself. Detective Mitchell wasn’t born from a carefully crafted concept or a years-long brainstorming process. No, Detective Mitchell came from a road trip, a stuffed bear, and a ridiculous conversation about poisoned muffins.

The Stuffed Bear on a Telephone Pole

It started on a Sunday, during a filming session for The One Eyed Dog. A few of us—myself, the director, and the producer—were driving out to a location when we spotted something bizarre. A giant, stuffed Valentine’s Day bear, completely devoid of stuffing, was nailed to a telephone pole. It was one of those sights that sticks with you, the kind of random oddity that instantly sparks a conversation.

“What if there was a story about that bear?” someone said. And just like that, we were spitballing ideas. What if the bear was part of a crime scene? What if the killer wore a giant stuffed bear suit and left cryptic messages? What if the detective investigating the case was completely unphased by the absurdity of it all?

By the time we reached our filming location, we had the beginnings of a new story. The idea wasn’t just about a crime—it was about a detective operating in a world that was utterly ridiculous, yet taking everything seriously.

The Muffin Murders and the Absurd World of Detective Mitchell

The bear wasn’t the only absurd crime that came from that brainstorming session. At one point, we started tossing around another mystery idea: someone was sending poisoned muffins to businesses. The news kept reporting on it, and yet, people kept eating the muffins. That’s when we envisioned a detective, sitting in front of the TV, watching yet another report of mass muffin poisoning and exasperatedly yelling, “WHY DO THEY KEEP EATING THE MUFFINS?!”

That moment—that frustration in the face of an utterly illogical world—is what made Detective Mitchell who they are. They weren’t just a detective; they were a voice of reason trapped in an unreasonable world, forced to solve mysteries that made no sense in a universe where logic had seemingly taken a backseat.

The Creative Split: Answering the Question of Absurdity

The character took shape quickly, but there was a creative divide. My original thought was, why is the world like this? Why does Detective Mitchell exist in a place where people accept stuffed bear killers and muffin-related mass deaths as normal? Is there something more to this world? A deeper reason for its absurdity?

The director I was working with at the time didn’t think that question needed an answer. In his mind, the comedy was enough, and the detective’s exasperation was just a fun angle. But for me, that wasn’t quite satisfying. I wanted to explore the why—to dig into what made the world function in this bizarre way. That difference in vision led us to take separate paths with the concept, and I began developing my own version of Detective Mitchell’s world.

How Detective Mitchell Evolved

Over time, Detective Mitchell became more than just a comedic character in a goofy crime world. The idea evolved into a fully fleshed-out mystery series, blending absurdity with suspense. The character remains level-headed, a classic detective archetype, but the cases they solve and the world they navigate continue to operate on a strange, surreal logic. The absurdity isn’t just there for laughs—it’s part of a larger mystery, one that Detective Mitchell might eventually solve.

Final Thoughts

Character creation can come from anywhere, even from something as random as a gutted stuffed bear nailed to a telephone pole. Detective Mitchell is proof that sometimes the best ideas are the ones that happen spontaneously, in a car full of people throwing around wild ideas just for fun.

But what makes a character truly interesting isn’t just their origin—it’s how they grow. Detective Mitchell’s world may have started as a joke, but the character has grown into something far more compelling—a detective navigating a world where logic and absurdity collide.