New SR: Missions Home group questions, Starting a new game, got some questions. Options

[FateBurn]

After spending forever trying to choose a campaign, we took the suggestion of some other players and decided to just pick up the Shadowrun Mission material and play through it. However, there are a few questions that have come up in the group and I was hoping some of you chummers could help me out.

Firstly, we wanted to start out doing the earlier seasons and playing catch up; to see what we missed essentially. However, we noticed right away that Season 2 is like, 24 missions long. Playing once a week that's half a year of gameplay! We may just skip it and start with Season 3, but figured it was worth asking here. If we were to try to play only a handful of missions from Season 2, what would you consider to be the absolute must plays?

Secondly, hacking. Very straight forward question. If there enough matrix stuff that a hacker is even viable? I've entered premade campaigns before, namely in third edition, where my decker felt woefully under utilized.

And finally I just want to note, if you're in the Tennessee area looking for a group around Knoxville hit us up. We are always looking for more experienced players.