The Best TV Shows on ARTE

Every ARTE Show Ranked From Best To Worst

Our curated list, current as of September 2026, showcases over 20 of ARTE’s highest-rated series. With its programming history stretching from 1990 to 2026, ARTE offers an impressive lineup of over 20 shows. Premiering in 1990 and 1999, Mapping the World and 360° Reportage are among ARTE’s most celebrated shows.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • mare TV
    mare TV (2001)8.3

  • 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.

  • 360° Reportage
    360° Reportage (1999)7.5

    Stories of extraordinary lives and extraordinary lands across the globe.

  • 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.

  • Invitation au voyage
    Invitation au voyage (2017)7.0

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

    Discover Europe in all its diversity of viewpoints

  • The Silence
    The Silence (2021)6.9

    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.

  • Ingo Thiel
    Ingo Thiel (2017)6.6

  • Xenius
    Xenius (2009)4.0

  • Hot Roads - The World's Most Dangerous Roads
    Hot Roads - The World's Most Dangerous Roads (2011)N/A

    A risky expedition along thoroughfares that harbor mortal danger for those who use them or live on them. They run through deserts, ice, and snow, deep in the jungle, along water, and over mountains: the world's most dangerous roads, truly "hot roads." Many have died along these roads.

  • Square
    Square (2012)N/A

  • Küstenparadies Kroatien
    Küstenparadies Kroatien (2017)N/A

  • Re: Was Europa bewegt
    Re: Was Europa bewegt (2017)N/A

  • TWIST
    TWIST (2020)N/A

  • Music Queer
    Music Queer (2026)N/A

    Landmarks of queer representation in popular culture or unknown gems that slid under the radar. Music Oueer looks at the subversive sonas that celebrated queer life