I'm a fan of the series as well.
Quote Originally Posted by Zeromus_X
You don't need to watch anything prior to an episode to know what's going on (bar a few of the episodes.)
I don't agree too heavily on this thanks to the Inuyasha anime. Every episode they would go over the entire story up to that point and, well, that just got downright annoying. However, Cowboy Bebop well above this style of instant-tune-in and carries on fluently while avoiding things like that.