In recent years, the most critically acclaimed TV show that isn't really readily available to watch in the U.S. has been Borgen, the Danish political drama.

While the distribution problem hasn't been fully solved, there is a partial solution. Seasons one, two, and three are now available on DVD in North America at Amazon. Here's hoping it gets non-hardware-based distribution in the not-so-distant future; the DVD release indicates that the rights have at least been partially cleared for North America.

[Of course, the subtext of piracy pervades all discussion of video content and its accessibility. I personally am not an advocate of the argument that if it's available for free via piracy and that's the only way you can get it that that's a license to just grab it, but that's a debate for another day.]