EE has definitely improved since DTC took the helm. New set should be a great way to have new sls and new kinds of characters - glad he's talked about the Shoreditch-ification of Walford. More hipsters, stalls selling Polish food, internet start ups, Somali lads selling cheap mobiles , farmer's market and pop up shops and a token posh development with a banker as a recurring character ( preferably Nigerian). The show does need a few rich middle class people and people from a non white British background. 1980s EE had Debbie and Andy
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debbie_Wilkins , Colin the gay graphic designer, and the posh James Wilmott Brown. It also had a full black family Carpenters, plus Cypriot Turk Ali, Mehmet and Sue Osman who ran the cafe and cabs, plus edgy characters like Nasty Nick, Mary the punk.
I like how despite the age of Twitter, spoiler etc we were surprised by Jane's return, Cindy deciding to keep baby and Kat having twins.
The Carters are brilliant. Jonny funny without being a cliché gay, Linda is reminiscent of Angie Watts with a splash of Peggy Mitchell, Danny Dyer as Mick has shocked me as most of DD's films are s*** but he's been great, he won't win a BAFTA but he does have screen presence. He has echos of Frank Butcher, Den Watts and early Pete Beale. Nancy is played by the best young actress and Lady Di is adorable. Tina is a cool non cliché lesbian (although she seems more into men imho), and Shirley is revitalised, nor just mooching around Walford drunk and saying "Hev".Stan and Aunt Babe look promising.
The Massods are relevant again, 2014 Masood is like Frank Gallagher off Shameless. Got a feeling Massod is going to get an STD. Tamwar is getting back to 2008 Tamwar. Love the way he's now realising Massood is flawed. Even my most hated characters Dexter and Fatboy serve a purpose and the market inspector intrigues me. Shabnam is going to be a great character (original actress must be kicking herself), I can't wait to see this new Islamified Shabnam square up to the Carters returning soldier son Lee -imo will deliberately controversially stir up debate of Drummer Lee Rigby and the Muslims who tragically took his life.
Also like how EE is not being too PC: Shabnam's racism to whites, David's "good Muslim" comment to Masood, Tina's "do you want to be white" comment to Denise, Denise's "vaguely racist oven gloves" from Ian and Nikki's blase attitude to cancer. Actually Nikki is a great addition, a stirring little bitch who looks like butter won't melt. David Wick is the best down to earth day to day type character on soap/ TV imo.
The brief glimpses of Sonia have been surprisingly enjoyable on return and the Carol BRAC1 storyline is very strong . However I am a bit annoyed by Stacey's return as she dominated too many SLs.