do i need to watch the movie(s) before watching this?

Not sure. I never heard of Greg Mclean or this portion of his oeuvre until last week when the POP channel in the U.S.A. debuted this series and ran the first in the movie series, which I watched as an introduction to the series. Thus, I don't know how well I'd have done with the series had I not watched the movie first. I didn't know there was a movie sequel (and possibly another in the works) until tonight.

No it's a standalone series and it doesn't follow any events of the previous installments and does give you the rundown about who Mick Taylor is as a character and stuff, the movies are better though so I'd watch them for that reason.

The plan is you drink a nice tall glass of shut the *beep* up.

You should watch the first movie, just to see something better than this load of crap.

Yes, you need to at least watch the first film ... the series features an important character from it.