If I wanted to check out the Tex Murphy series of games, where should I start? I've been seeing that the Pandora Directive game is one of the best FMV adventure games of all time, but would I have to play the first few Tex Murphy games to have a better understanding of the characters and what is happening? Or should I play the first games anyways, just so that everything will fall into place in just the right order?
How would you guys advise going about this? Is it a must to play the first few games, or can I hop right into the Pandora Directive and be able to understand the storyline pretty well?

Personally, I started with "Martian Memorandum" as I never could get into "Mean Streets" (which is retold in the great "Overseer").
A friend started with "Under a Killing Moon" and he never felt like he missed something which is mostly due to Tex's voice-overs that explain everything.
Saying this, you could start with "Pandora Directive" if you wanted to but you'll miss a great game.
If you like somewhat unforgiving oldschool Adventures, start with "Martian Memorandum" if not I strongly suggest to start with "Under a Killing Moon".

I personally got started with Under A Killing Moon, I think it's a good way to get into the Tex Murphy series. But you don't necessarily have to play the games in order, you can really start about anywhere.

I started with Under a Killing Moon. It's the best one to start with, I feel.

Agreeing with the others, started with UAKM and didn't feel like I missed anything from the previous games even after I made my way through Pandora and Overseer....

While Mean Streets is my favorite, Under a Killing Moon is a good intro to the kind of gameplay most of the series is about. If you're like me, though, and like to play all the games chronilogically, then play Mean Streets.

I started with Pandora, then Overseer, then Under a Killing Moon and didn't have any issue with this order.
Actually I'm glad I started with Pandora, because if I had picked Under a Killing for my first I'd probably had never played the others, since it's not nearly as cool as the new ones. But it's still great.

I started with Pandora too, back in the day. Then I played UAKM. When replaying the series this year I started with UAKM. Both options were fine. I have tried the earlier games too, but I couldn't really get into them.

I started with Mean Streets because that was the only Tex Murphy game around at the time.
Personally I think you should start with Martian Memorandum as what happens at the end of Under a Killing Moon kinda links back to MM.
Mean Streets can be a very hard game to play, but as mentioned above, the story is retold in Overseer so you're not really missing much by skipping this one.

I have to say that Mean Streets is rather frustrating to play. I have tried many times but I give up as I am not patient enough. There are also some very detailed Mean Streets Walkthroughs that tell you the whole story anyway, so reading that is a bit similar to playing the game. Also, as said earlier- it is retold in Overseer, so no biggie if you start with Martian Memorandum.

im also considering trying to get into the series, are the early games text based? i'd definitely prefer to start with a more "modern" interface.

No, the two first are regular point and click adventure games, although they do have some annoying elemesnts like flying the car. The three last are 3d and fullmotion video, I would recommend starting out with nr 3: Under a killing Moon since you're not missing much storywise from the two first games and Oversser(nr 5) is basically a remake of one of the first games. Just my opinion though, I never really cared for the two first of the series.

cool thanks i think i might do that. I've been itching for a mystery game that comes close to being as good as gabriel knight: SotF, so il give these a try.

Good idea. These games are a bit more cheezy in terms of humour, but I think I actually love them more than GK. At least more than SotF.

I would start with one of the first 3 (Mean Streets, Martian Memorandum or Under a Killing Moon). You could skip Mean Streets if you don't find you're interested because the story is covered again in Overseer. Martian Memorandum would be worth playing but if you find you're more into the FMV games only then I suppose it's ok to skip it if you want. If you choose to not play the first two games then definitely start with Under a Killing Moon. It's an awesome game that's FMV and it's best to play the games in order so you can appreciate a lot of the changes in character relationships that are based on some of what happened in previous games. Under a Killing Moon is also not as long as The Pandora Directive and is right up there with it in gameplay and story.