The Best TV Shows on ARTE

Every ARTE Show Ranked From Best To Worst

ARTE has over 20 shows broadcast from as early as 1990 and as recent as 2026. For top-tier entertainment, ARTE delivered Mapping the World and 360° Reportage in 1990 and 1999. As of September 2026, our compilation of ARTE’s top-rated series boasts over 20 unique 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.

  • Xenius
    Xenius (2009)4.0

  • America Who Are You? A History of the American Mindset
    America Who Are You? A History of the American Mindset (2026)4.0

    On July 4th, 2026, the United States will celebrate Independence Day, just as it does every year. But 250 years on from the country’s Declaration of Independence, the image of the United States has become tarnished. Yet today, the United States seems increasingly alien and ever more threatening to many Europeans. Is Donald Trump’s current policy the product of a national identity shaped by history? To understand the American mindset, one must look back to the roots and myths that have shaped it — a history marked by rifts and conflicts that continue to resonate today. By drawing parallels between cowboys and populism, Thanksgiving and Charlie Kirk, this 2-part 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.

  • 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

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

  • Küstenparadies Kroatien
    Küstenparadies Kroatien (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