Well i'm not exactly in this groove: of course i've said over and over that it is clear and present truth that EE hasn't been the guns-blazing EE it was, say, five years ago (when John Yorke was Exec Producer, and the Slaters Saga was brutally fresh and the Mitchell/Fowler war was unfolding powerfully). In fact, it has been really pretty shit for much of 2004.
If memory serves me right, the major plots which ran over the first few months of this year were: Janine the Butcher; The Kidney Saga; Blackmailing the Moons; and the Mush that was Shannis. Now the construction of ALL of these plots was stultifyingly poor, and it weakened EE to the state it found itself in. But I remember odd little moments of good stuff which were almost always let-down by crap construction: the Kat and Alfie in the scene where they handed over the £7000 to Graham the rapist in the solicitors office was strong (as was the preceeding story where Charlie - who is now totally void of character - beat the crap out of him in his cab), but was let down by the never ending blackmail from Andy "the yawn" Hunter, who had no point anyway and managed, through this plot, to drain Alfie of his charm; the climax of The Butcher plot was flashy, but I thought Janine became a bit of a panto villain in the end, almost as bad as Richard Hillman (why can't soaps keep it 'real'... Evil Trevor went too far, Mad Maya I find a joke, even The Stokes in Emmerdale is like a cartoon nasty), and why did her exit come out of nowhere after a two week spat with Laura "the frump" Beale? It had dragged on for ages, too long. She should have been gone in February. The Shannis thing (I really hate that word) was toe-curlingly annoying, and I thought that, as willhung mentioned, the 2nd return of Den, where Pauline welcomed him with the "same house, same room, same bed" speech. And where Dennis flipped out and wacked Sharon was good.
So there were good moments there, no less than normal. But it was the support in between that was the let down. When there are good moments, fine. But when the bad is 'this' bad (kidneys & squatting, anyone) it brings everything down.
My personal IMO: the turning point came in June. The Kat/Alfie two hander was stronger and more consistent than we had seen for a while (and brought an end to the Blackmail plot). The writing got better during the Sonia & Martin Wedding build up (Pauline & Dot gave EE some really quality comedy moments), and, yes, the Dragon Ride was essentially pointless, but I think people criticise it too much based of the actual disaster. I really thought this was a great episode, but not because people were running around and mucking in, but because the interaction between the stranded Dot & Pauline was superb and strong. Since then, well, I think things have got better. As with the Butcher episode, I thought the Kate vs Chrissie Haircut 100 was flashy and textbook, but far too long coming. Jane has worked out well (although her obvious romance with Ian is turning into the Kat and Alfie of 2004), and naturally the Dot story has developed in the vein of old EE. Recently, I even through the otherwise deadweight characters Den and Andy worked (when the tied together over the bookies scandal and Pat), then the Den/Dot Two Hander got better, and the follow on episode (the Dot/Jim and Den/Chrissie) episode was possibly even better.
So I think EE is, right now, pretty good. Jane and Ian are pretty boring because it's so obvious how it's going to turn out. The Fereirra's were a nice idea, but they just haven't worked and need to be cut. If these changes happened, then with the Millers arriving next week, and Peggy's return [albeit brief] the week after, then I think the base building blocks are there, to set the ball rolling again.
Was the Shirley The Catwoman and her Noisy Neighbour storyline really in 2004? It seems such a long time ago. Probably because I've tried my hardest to bury it deep inside my mind.