Somebody I know (cough) starts torrent downloads in sequential order after downloading the first and last chunk, and then opens the file in VLC while it is downloading.

Works amazingly well for watching something front to back if your download speed is fast enough; you'd never know it wasn't being streamed. The hardest part is finding a good torrent for what you want to watch. Ironically the Netflix catalog is one of the most easily available to pirate since people rip it directly from web.