Honestly several of the issues could have been fixed if the director didn't do such a poor job. Episode was still great and hyperbole is running high, but this could of been (maybe should have been) top 3 in the entire series. Things he could have done better:
- Fighting was edgy, constant moving around. There was no clarity identifying what is happening. We got a much better example of how to handle that with two large armies 2 weeks ago, this was 6 guys vs one army. A big issue with this is that it didn't sell the sense of danger. You didn't feel how they could die which was ever present 2 eps ago or BOTB, or.. every big fucking battle in the series so far. The sense of dread and danger was missing primarily due to poor directing.
- Sell the idea that NK is laying a trap. The sell for wights is they run and they never stop. You do this, you feel more fear for NK as to question how clever he is instead of wondering why they let them chill for 4 days.
- Too many last moment "saves" which came off hacky as shit instead of feeling real, like something in Hardhoam when people are saved last minute and it felt genuine.
- LF doing a creepy "I'm watching you" just felt hacky as shit to me lol.. With a different directory, the entire Winterfell arc wouldn't have looked as sloppy as it looked.
For my take on never directing anything or ever working for a tv series, D&D fucked up hiring this director for this episode. This guy has no place to directing a tv series like this, esp an "episode 9". Better not see this dude's name for s8, though with some reviews I suspect it's not happening. It's not like everything he did was bad. Some amazing winter shots, banter convos were all great and fun to listen to. But this should have been a grander episode than it ended up happening.