The Best TV Shows on ARTE

Every ARTE Show Ranked From Best To Worst

Check out the most acclaimed shows on ARTE, with a catalog of over 20 series updated for November 2026. Icons of ARTE, Mapping the World and 360° Reportage made their debut in 1990 and 1999, setting industry standards. 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Metropolis: The Splendor of Cities Throughout the Ages
    Metropolis: The Splendor of Cities Throughout the Ages (2003)6.5

    The series Metropolis takes us to the very heart of urban life in antiquity and in the 15th century. It examines a crucial step in the history of civilization and culture: Mankind has advanced to a settled lifestyle, allowing him to organize large social alliances which extend far beyond family and clan. The consequences are critical changes in all facets of life.

  • Trepalium
    Trepalium (2016)5.7

    The economic situation is a nightmare: only 20% of the population is employed. The Actives live inside the city. On the fringes, in the Zone, live the Jobless. Separating them is a wall.

  • 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

  • Square
    Square (2012)N/A

  • TWIST
    TWIST (2020)N/A