The Best TV Shows on ARTE

Every ARTE Show Ranked From Best To Worst

ARTE’s extensive portfolio includes more than 20 shows, spanning the years from 1990 to 2021. Leading the pack on ARTE are Mapping the World and ARTE 360° Reportage, with their initial broadcasts in 1990 and 1999. Dive into our updated selection of ARTE’s finest, featuring more than 20 series as of September 2025.

  • Cuisines des terroirs
    Cuisines des terroirs (2001)10.0

    A sensual approach to culinary art "on the ground", meeting farmers, winegrowers, restaurateurs and cooks, where gastronomy and the art of living have their roots.

  • 42 – The Answer to Almost Everything
    42 – The Answer to Almost Everything (2021)9.5

    What would we be without mucus? Can we live on water? How much does life weigh? Finding out the answers is the aim of ARTE's new science show. In a nod to Douglas Adams's "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", where the figure 42 is the ultimate answer to all questions, 42 tries to provide the answers.

  • Mapping the World
    Mapping the World (1990)8.6

    Then complex world of geopolitics broken down into ten minute, bite-sized chunks. You'll never sound uninformed at the dinner table ever again.

  • mare TV
    mare TV (2001)8.5

  • Through the Night with...
    Through the Night with... (2002)8.0

    Durch die Nacht mit … is a German documentary film television series produced by ZDF for Franco-German television channel ARTE. Locations are mainly in France or Germany. The title of the French version is Au cœur de la nuit. Two Celebrities spend an filmed evening together. One of them is the host who sets the location and the program. There is no moderator.

  • Streetphilosophy
    Streetphilosophy (2015)8.0

  • ARTE 360° Reportage
    ARTE 360° Reportage (1999)7.6

  • A Very Secret Service
    A Very Secret Service (2015)7.6

    At the height of the Cold War in 1960, André Merlaux joins the French Secret Service and contends with enemies both foreign and bureaucratic.

  • In Wahrheit
    In Wahrheit (2017)7.5

  • Charité
    Charité (2017)7.3

    Berlin, 1888. After penniless Ida’s life is saved at the Charité Hospital she must work off the treatment costs. While she becomes acquainted with the most brilliant physicians of this era at the world-famous hospital, the self-determined young woman discovers her passion for medicine.

  • Bad Banks
    Bad Banks (2018)7.3

    Ambitious Jana is confronted with the unscrupulous machinations of the world of finance. Her working life is determined by egotism, the pressure to succeed and machismo. She soon has to decide how far she is prepared to go for her career.

  • 70 Years of Youth Revolt
    70 Years of Youth Revolt (2020)7.3

    A look back at the social movements, revolts and youth subcultures from the post-war period to the present day: after the World War II, the left-bank of Paris became a mecca for jazz and alternative living, youth culture was born with trailblazing American movies, and rock became the soundtrack to a generation that wanted to change everything.

  • Too Young to Die
    Too Young to Die (2012)7.2

    Those who knew them best describe the sensational lives and premature deaths of iconic actors and musicians whose passing left a void in pop culture.

  • The Silence
    The Silence (2021)7.1

    Dramatic events unfold in Croatia and Ukraine. The first girl drowned, the second one died from a drug overdose. The main suspect in these deaths, however, soon turns out to be innocent - and dead too. While detective Vladimir and reporter Stribor struggle to solve these murders in Croatia, the niece of Olga, an Ukrainian philanthropist, goes missing in Kyiv.

  • Photo: A History from Behind the Lens
    Photo: A History from Behind the Lens (2009)7.0

    Explores the development of photography from its beginnings to more recent times.

  • Invitation au voyage
    Invitation au voyage (2017)7.0

  • Berlin Live
    Berlin Live (2011)6.0

    Bands perform in Berlin's legendary club TRAFO, the concrete temple music.

  • H24: 24 Hours, 24 Women, 24 Stories
    H24: 24 Hours, 24 Women, 24 Stories (2021)3.6

    Twenty-four short films by 24 female writers, performed by 24 women actors, all based on women’s real life experiences of sexism, harassment, and violence. A diversity of female voices and talent from across Europe come together for a series that tackles head-on the everyday brutality experienced by women.

  • Square
    Square (2012)N/A

  • Karambolage
    Karambolage (N/A)N/A

    Words, rituals, objects, references... Karambolage offers an amused comparative anthropology of the locals on both sides of the Rhine.