Oh, ok, so it was a telenovela-turned-soap. That’s why I wondered if the format affects how actors create their characters. (And also explains why Anna und die Liebe has a gazillion dvd releases and AWZ has 4 volumes and then--look at that--“Highlights” (which never seem to coincide with what I consider to be highlights, but oh well.) Run-on sentence? You’re welcome ;)
The irony (mine anyway), is that despite the triangular telenovela format, my favorite character interactions were friendship based [Roman/Jenny, Annette/Diana, a bit of Jutta/Keule, Vanessa] or family-based [Van and her dad spring to mind]. And Diana--despite the OTP/destiny/heartbeat thing--was appealing. I think because the triangle was new, it was expected to have an end-point, the target audience is younger, and I knew what to expect.
Re: the 746 locker room mention--I can't exactly put into words how that scene makes me feel, but it's so authentic, all pretense is stripped away and I can empathize with every word. I was more afraid of Jenny doing harm to herself than Stella, frankly.
Re: current show--do you know if there were any behind the scenes changes as well? I know new characters--but--well, I guess you said it best with "esprit"