examples of circular narrative to hook the audience

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbgcxD4-I7I
from 1.50 till the theme





This is a good example of how a circular narritive can be used for building of tension. At the begining one of the main protagonists of 4400 - Diana is holed up in a gym with her daughter whilst someone is continually banging against the double doors. Finally breaking through the door this unknown attacker comes face to face (gun to gun) with diana. The resultant mid shot reveals that the attacker is in fact the main protagonist and her collegue Tom.

The way the circular narrative works means that the audience are both shocked and hooked onto what will happen due to the break in the convention in that the protagonist is shown as the antagonist. This break in personality trait means that the audience will want to know why and how this has happened, thus meaning that they are successfully hooked. And as a technique, normally this is how a circular narritive is used. To give the audience information that they can build upon to create their own opinions of what they think will happen. In this case they break convention through a main character. As it is a television series, by this point the audience will likely have a strong relation with key characters and this is what is played upon for effect. Should this be tryed on a film it wouldn't work as the audience would have no prior knowledge of characters, meaning a protagonist or antagonist wouldnt be apparent.

It is interesting that a technique like circular narritive has different ways it can be executed and it is sure to be something i will look into further.