The Best TV Shows on ARTE

Every ARTE Show Ranked From Best To Worst

Our curated list, current as of October 2026, showcases over 20 of ARTE’s highest-rated series. Leading the pack on ARTE are Mapping the World and 360° Reportage, with their initial broadcasts in 1990 and 1999. Across the timeline from 1990 to 2026, ARTE has presented audiences with over 20 captivating shows.

  • Karambolage
    Karambolage (N/A)10.0

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

  • 42: The Answer to Almost Everything
    42: The Answer to Almost Everything (2021)9.6

    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.

  • Invitation Au Voyage
    Invitation Au Voyage (2017)8.5

    Invitation Au Voyage (titled *Stadt Land Kunst* in German) is a television program hosted by Linda Lorin; it has aired on Arte every weekday at 5:40 PM since March 13, 2017. It is a cultural travel show that explores various locations—both near and far—centered around three specific destinations. Additionally, a special Saturday edition at 4:30 PM offers a getaway to discover a particular city, region, or country.

  • With the Train Through...
    With the Train Through... (2006)8.0

  • Through the Night with...
    Through the Night with... (2002)7.9

    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.

  • A Very Secret Service
    A Very Secret Service (2015)7.7

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

  • 360° Reportage
    360° Reportage (1999)7.5

    Stories of extraordinary lives and extraordinary lands across the globe.

  • In Wahrheit
    In Wahrheit (2017)7.5

    Crime lurks in the Saarland. Thankfully, Detective Judith Mohn and her colleague Freddy are always on hand to apprehend criminals of every kind. In their first case, the murder of a prostitute leads them into the trucking world.

  • Clash of Futures (1918-1939)
    Clash of Futures (1918-1939) (2018)7.5

    From the armistice of 1918, which marked the end of the First World War, to the declaration of war in September 1939, the beginning of the Second World War: an era during which there was an aspiration to create a new world, prosperous and at peace, but which provoked a new tragedy, seen through the destinies of thirteen people who were both actors and witnesses of the upheavals of the so-called inter-war period.

  • 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.

  • 3x Manon
    3x Manon (2014)7.2

    After going before the judge for the third time, 15-year old Manon is placed in a reform centre for six months. Challenged by her own uncontrollable temper, and the bureaucracy of the institution, will this be Manon’s last chance at redemption?

  • RE: European Stories
    RE: European Stories (2017)6.9

    Discover Europe in all its diversity of viewpoints

  • The Silence
    The Silence (2021)6.8

    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.

  • H24: 24 Hours, 24 Women, 24 Stories
    H24: 24 Hours, 24 Women, 24 Stories (2021)4.2

    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.

  • Xenius
    Xenius (2009)4.0

  • America Who Are You?
    America Who Are You? (2026)4.0

    250 years on from the country’s Declaration of Independence, the image of the United States has become tarnished. By drawing parallels between cowboys and populism, Thanksgiving and Charlie Kirk, this documentary demonstrates that Trump’s politics differ from those of his predecessors and are not in line with the values upon which the history of the American nation was founded.

  • Square
    Square (2012)N/A

  • TWIST
    TWIST (2020)N/A