The Best TV Shows on ARTE

Every ARTE Show Ranked From Best To Worst

Our curated list, current as of January 2026, showcases over 20 of ARTE’s highest-rated series. Some of the best tv shows from ARTE include Mapping the World and arte 360° Reportage, airing in 1990 and 1999 respectively. With its programming history stretching from 1990 to 2021, ARTE offers an impressive lineup of over 20 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.

  • Geliebte Feinde – Die Deutschen und die Franzosen
    Geliebte Feinde – Die Deutschen und die Franzosen (2013)10.0

  • 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)8.5

  • 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.

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

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

    Stories of extraordinary lives and extraordinary lands across the globe.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Invitation au voyage
    Invitation au voyage (2017)7.0

  • ARTE Re:
    ARTE Re: (2017)6.8

  • Food Markets: In the Belly of the City
    Food Markets: In the Belly of the City (2013)5.7

    Going to the local market when we visit a foreign city is something we all love to do. More people visit them in one day than all the city's art museums put together. Markets attract us for their colours, smells, people, sounds and taste.

  • Xenius
    Xenius (2009)4.0

  • 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.

  • Arte Journal
    Arte Journal (2010)N/A

  • Square
    Square (2012)N/A

  • D'après une histoire vraie
    D'après une histoire vraie (2021)N/A