Best Directors

[Pancakes1800]

Through 50 Game of Thrones episodes there have been 16 directors, some have been nominated and won awards and some you may not remember, but all played a significant part in creating the show.  So I wanted to know which directors you think are the best.  Some directors receive better material than others which may influence you, but don't fault a director if something bad happens to your favorite character.  That is up to the writing team, not the directors.  You can list all 16 directors from best to worst or just the one that you think are the best.  It doesn't matter to me.  I will include the name of the director and the episodes he or she directed.

(Note a * next to an episodes means the director was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for that particular episode)

1. Tim Van Patten (2 episodes)

*Season 1 episode 1 "Winter is Coming" 

Season 1 episode 2 "The Kingsroad"

2. Brian Kirk (3 episodes)

Season 1 episode 3 "Lord Snow"

Season 1 episode 4 "Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things"

Season 1 episode 5 "The Wolf and the Lion"

3. Daniel Minahan (5 episodes)

Season 1 episode 6 "A Golden Crown"

Season 1 episode 7 "You Win or You Die"

Season 1 episode 8 " The Pointy End"

Season 3 episode 1 "Valar Dohaeris"

Season 3 episode 2 "Dark Wings, Dark Words"

4. Alan Taylor (6 episodes)

Season 1 episode 9 "Baelor"

Season 1 episode 10 "Fire and Blood"

Season 2 episode 1 "The North Remembers"

Season 2 episode 2 " The Night Lands"

Season 2 episode 8 "The Prince of Winterfell"

Season 2 episode 10 "Valar Morghulis"

5. Alik Sakharov(4 episodes)

Season 2 episode 3 "What is Dead May Never Die"

Season 3 episode 6 "The Climb"

Season 4 episode 6 "The Laws of Gods and Men"

Season 4 episode 7 "Mockingbird"

6. David Petrarca (2 episodes)

Season 2 episode 4 "Garden of Bones"

Season 2 episode 5 "The Ghost of Harrenhal"

7. David Nutter (6 episodes)

Season 2 episode 6 "The Old Gods and the New"

Season 2 episode 7 "A Man Without Honor"

Season 3 episode 9 " The Rains of Castamere"

Season 3 episode 10 "Mhysa"

Season 5 episode 9 "The Dance of Dragons"

*Season 5 episode 10 "Mother's Mercy"

8. Neil Marshall(2 episodes)

Season 2 episode 9 "Blackwater"

*Season 4 episode 9 "The Watchers on the Wall"

9. Alex Graves (6 episodes)

Season 3 episode 4 "And Now His Watch Is Ended"

Season 3 episode 5 "Kissed by Fire"

Season 4 episode 2" The Lion and the Rose"

Season 4 episode 3 "Breaker of Chains"

Season 4 episode 8 " The Mountain and the Viper"

Season 4 episode 10 "The Children"

10. Michelle MacLaren (4 episodes)

Season 3 episode 7 "The Bear and the Maiden Fair"

Season 3 episode 8 "Second Sons"

Season 4 episode 4 "Oathkeeper"

Season 4 episode 5 "First of His Name"

11. Michael Slovis (2 episodes)

Season 5 episode 1 "The Wars to Come"

Season 5 episode 2 "The House of Black and White"

12. Mark Mylod (2 episodes)

Season 5 episode 3 "High Sparrow"

Season 5 episode 4 "Sons of the Harpy"

13. Jeremy Podeswa (2 episodes)

Season 5 episode 5 "Kill the Boy"

*Season 5 episode 6 "Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken"

14. Miguel Sapochnik (2 episodes)

Season 5 episode 7 (The Gift)

Season 5 episode 8 (Hardhome)

15. David Benioff (1 episode)

Season 3 episode 3 "Walk of Punishment"

16 Dan Weiss (1 episode)

Season 4 episode 1 "Two Swords)

(I should note that David and Dan said they co-directed those 2 episodes, but HBO gave credit to 1 per episode so that's what I am doing)

Have fun!

 

 

 

 

[The Amun Ra]

Best directors in my opinion: Miguel Sapochnik, Neil Marshall, David Nutter

[Cashless Society]

Almost all the directors are great so I'm just going to list the bad ones:
Minahan for season 3.
Petrarca.
Mylod.

[pettes]

Alex graves

[Meera of Tarth]

Alex Graves

 

Alan Taylor 

 

and from s5: Miguel Sapochnik and David Nutter

[Channel4s-JonSnow]

I think it's hard to separate out the directors because the show generally have a consiatant feel to it. Hard to say how individually they are responsible for a good episode or not, they could have just got lucky with a good script at that point.

The only one who is different it Marshall. But I personally am not a fan of his work, and I feel like his two episodes could have been done with a lot more panache and style, big set piece battles that they are. Castle blacks battle I thought was quite ubderwhelming and I never once got the sense of how outnumbered the watch were

[TheCasualObserver]

Neil Marshall. There's a man who knows how to direct an action sequence.