I am a big fan of Corrie but why do the residents and the police keep being stupid. Firstly with Caz, everyone has known Maria and should know she wouldn't kill someone and Kate who knows Vas is deranged should be live Maria. Also the only evidence the police have is circumstantial and they don't even know if she is harmed or dead and how Maria in broad daylight could move a body but leave evidence close to home. Also with phelean why does everyone believe what he says especially Cathy who is friends with Anne who is completely against him. Also sine the actor said Helena is staying for a long time so of course the residents believe he didn't know what Bunny was up to but as a builder he would know it wasn't't near ready. Feel free to talk about past collective stupidity or from other soaps.

The answer is plain and simple Lazy writers, basically its just easier than coming up with a logical creative reason as to why they may not believe Maria or Anna, Lazy Writers have been turning characters dumb since the dawn of time.

I agree about Phelan!!

Most of the Street were made aware of the fact that he was the one who ruined Owen and then went bankrupt himself, yet were happy enough to hand over £15K on the recommendation of Todd, hardly the model neighbour himself in the time since his return!!
Also agree with you about the police, though the Weatherfield plod have always been more suited to Cloudcuckooland so we shouldn't really expect any more or less I guess!!
As for the residents though to be fair, in the Maria s/l I can only think of three who are doubting her innocence: Kate, who's been a fickle, idiotic character who changes her mind more often than her socks since day one, Jenny who has a grudge against Maria from their spat last year & will take great delight in seeing her suffer & Fiz who REALLY should know better after what she went through with the plods a few years ago!!

Maria had plenty of supporters in various scenes we've seen before her arrest!!

As others have said, Corrie have been doing this same tired for years now and it shows no sign of stopping.

The first time they did this in this style was when Richard Hillman murdered Maxine and Ashley was arrested for her murder. This was over within a couple of episodes but for some reason the writers and storylines at Corrie have decided that this the best way to write drama, so they include it as much as they can. Following that line, most 'big' storylines have involved an element of someone being wrongly accused and their friends and neighbours believing someone else instead of them.

For me, the worst one was during the Kirsty and Tyrone domestic abuse storyline where everyone who had known Tyrone for years suddenly thought that he was capable of being abusive towards Kirsty.

And it can only get worse when they have to crank out another episode every week.