CP3S, I'd stick with Bebop until at least episode 5 ("Ballad of Fallen Angels"), as bkev said.

And I love FMA: Brotherhood, but I definitely see what you mean about the obnoxiousness. The first Fullmetal Alchemist series has less of this, but the story's all fucked cos they caught up to the manga and decided to branch off into their own story about halfway through, whereas Brotherhood follows the manga the entire way, quite faithfully.

And I have to say, those are the only two (three? if you count the two FMAs separately) anime series that I can stand to watch. So I'd recommend sticking with at least Bebop. Hell, it's only 26 half-hour episodes, and it really doesn't have the ridiculous crap that FMA:B does.

--edit--

Also, are you watching the English dubs or Japanese with English subtitles? The dub of Bebop isn't bad, but I'd recommend watching either FMA series in Japanese. I can't stand the dubs for those.