Usually I'm downloading movies, and It would be awesome to not have to make like seven clicks every time I download a new torrent so that I can start watching it before the download is complete. Looking in the settings, it doesn't seem possible to set sequential and front and back first as default settings. Does anyone have any insight?

I believe it's purposely kept that way so that too many people don't start setting it by default as it could impact on swarm piece distribution (cause an availiability bias towards lower numbered pieces in the torrent).  The clicks required to set it to do sequential downloading should help to keep that potential outcome in check.