will I be lost if I pick it up this Tuesday? I want to tune in to see what I've been missing.

i was thinking of starting this season as well. the whole "outbreak" thing looks interesting

The seasons so far have been pretty self-contained. There is back story, of course, but as long as you don't miss an episode within that season you should be okay. I will say that you'll likely have the surprises and twists of the first two seasons spoiled for you if you start now, though.

It probably won't be to bad.

What happened in the last scene from season 2 with Palmer will probably carry over into this season and their will probably be a few characters that will pop up that you won't know who they are.

Yeah, some of the twists from earlier seasons will be spoiled, but it's not like they're that earth-shattering anyway. Of all the arcing shows where one episode builds from the on before it, 24 is probably the easiest to start at the beginning of a season. All the events from a season happen in a single day, so by missing a season, you're not missing a whole year's worth of character development and backstory, just one day. Try as they might, there's only so much that can happen in a day. I would expect you could pick it up pretty easily.

das

I wonder if that will even be the case given the amount of time that supposed to have passed between Season 2 and 3.

I don't get it though...why spoil it for yourself? You know you've missed 48 whole episodes...why not start from the beginning? It's not like season 3 won't hit DVD, and in the meantime you get two brand new fulls seasons to watch commercial free.

With that said, season 3 can't come soon enough.

i hear

Rypro...is that spoiler from season 3? How big do you think it'd be to read and where'd you get it from?