Hmm. I enjoyed the few random episodes of X-Files I managed to see as standalone things with just basic knowledge of the series premise. (I think I've seen all of three unrelated eps. LOL Am I really a 90s kid?) Tried to jump into Lost mid-first season and was completely unengaged/lost. I watched the X-Men Evolution cartoon back in the day and liked the first two movies (haven't seen others), but those were the beginnings of their own continuities IIRC. If something has an over-arching storyline, I tend to want to know it from the beginning. If I somehow start something in the middle, I usually stop and go back to the beginning. When it comes to books, I don't usually get something new if the first in the series is unavailable and don't, say, skip and buy book five if book four is unavailable. Or if i do buy it, I don't read it until I get book four. When I was a kid I got annoyed when I found out after I had read Little House on the Prairie that there was a series and I hadn't started with the first book. But I was able to read Nancy Drew books out of order. IDK, I guess it depends on story structure. I'm big on crossover fanfics to the point that I can enjoy them even if they're with an unfamiliar franchise. If the author doesn't write as if the series is new to the reader, Wikipedia is my friend then. And crossover fics dragged me back into Bleach fandom a year or so ago after not paying attention for several years, so Bleach Wiki has been my friend for everything after the beginning of the Hueco Mundo arc. Even with that, once I figured out I was interested in it again I started a reread from the beginning.

So I bet I'd do best to just start from the beginning. Whenever I get around to it.

It's like when Cid keeps appearing in all of those Final Fantasy games. It's nice if you recognize that he's a character who has appeared in other games, but you're really not missing out on anything if you don't know that.
Good to know. That was a hangup for me.