I think one of the reasons why the "persons of the week" are so engaging in POI is that the only thing our team ever gets is a social security number. They don't even know if it belongs to a victim or a perpetrator, which not only leaves a lot of room for storytelling (and it's not always murders either!), it also forces them to look at these people, their lives, their stories, pretty closely. They have to actually get to know - and often enough relate to - them and that translates to the audience more often than not.

This is very true! I also had the revelation, while replying to wolfy_writing, that the social security number concept means each case has a defined 'main character'; the reply in question is over here if you're interested in seeing me ramble about this.

I'm looking forward to discovering more of the worldbuilding!