Confession: When 24 first came on the air, I was not interested in watching it. I would change the channels when the commercial came on. I thought it was way too over the top.

About 2-1/2 years ago, during the summer (when there was nothing on TV), my husband brought home the entire first season from our local library. I rolled my eyes and said I wasn't really interested in seeing it. He said, "Let's give it a try."

We were glued to the TV within the first couple of minutes. Our kids missed the first episode or 2, but when they started watching, they were glued to the TV also. We could not stop watching it.

After we finished the first season, DH went back to the library and got the second season. The DVD set was so badly scratched that we only made it through 8 episodes. The DVDs were skipping badly. Poor George is dying from radiation poisoning and we haven't seen the end yet.

We cannot justify the cost of buying the set because we will probably only watch it once, so we are in limbo as far as 24 is concerend.

We did not watch the 06-07 season because we figured we'd be lost. There was no 07-08 season.

On Sunday night I asked my husband if he wanted to start watching the new season of 24. He said no, but he was on the computer and had the TV turned on in another window while he was on the Internet. He happened to be on the FOX station at 8:00. Within 2 minutes of the show starting, he maximized the TV window, lay down on our bed with the computer's remote and settled down to watch. I joined him. When the kids shut off the Wii at 9:00 to go to bed, we went to watch the rest of it on the big TV.

In this thresd, I'm reading references to different people and situations from past seasons. We didn't seem to be lost by what was going on when we watched, which was nice. We still have to watch last night's double episode because he teaches on Monday nights. I know who Tony is but I don't know any of the other people that all of you are talking about.

Is there any backstory information that we need to know about to understand what's going on this season?

I got sliced!