Lost in storytelling (or, a post with a lot of obscure references)

I’m having Lostfest by myself for various reasons, which means I’ve been able to watch a lot more of it in the last few days. Good times, great for cleaning my office entertainment.

They have me thinking about storytelling.

This story, so far, is compelling and intricate. Lots of little sweet spots, too, like how the other characters show up in the background of flashbacks–Hurley on TV during one of Jin’s flashbacks was a very clever one I almost missed. I bet there are others I have missed.

Here’s my worry for Lost (and I’m only in season one now). I worry they’ve done too much. They keep adding things (spoilers ahoy):

–so I know there are people on the island, Ethan and Russo–are they connected, are they not? How big is this frikkin’ island?
–fing polar bears?? And the other beastie…what now?
–Walt’s somehow a ten-year-old magical matricide? Haven’t heard a lot about that, but wtf???
–whispers in the jungle
–Jack’s ghost dad wandering around
–Uh, guy in wheelchair walking around now? And he’s somehow Superman? Well, more like Batman meets MacGyver, but anyway.
–I’m in the middle of the numbers episode. Love the idea, so very, very much. But.

Okay, I like magic, I like mystery. But this is on the edge of being too much mystery. It feels like the story is slipping away from the writers, like they are packing in a lot of confusion and mysticism instead of writing a good yarn. I’m starting to really worry about this having a beginning, middle and end that makes sense. It reminds me painfully of books five, six and most of seven of the Dark Tower series. Especially six, which makes me want to punch something. I really hated that book.

I maintain hope that the writers know what they’re doing. That they planned two or three or even more seasons in advance, and they know exactly where the story is going, how everything adds up. But I’m starting to sense a certain “all the other books I wrote with Dark Tower references were just to throw you off” moment. That one hurt, people. And just ignore me, because you probably have no idea what I’m talking about. But ARG, they’d better not pull that cheap ass “haha just kidding, we don’t know what it means either” trick on me. Or the “it was all a dream” trick. Because that is also irritating.

All I’m saying is, you have to be careful not to let the cool factor of a story rob you of the original purpose for it, or of the telling. Because then, all you get are midichlorians. And we all know how we feel about midichlorians.