Game Of Thrones: Ranking Every Season From Worst To Best

3. Season 6

If Season 5 saw the show taking some big deviations from the books, then 6 was the one where they were really operating in uncharted territory. With The Winds of Winter delayed, Dan Weiss and David Benioff were largely out on their own for this one (though there were some leftover plots to incorporate), and it resulted in a run that was a little messy but totally exhilarating.

This season certainly felt faster, but without losing its sense of internal logic. The big moments were coming thicker and faster, as Jon came back to life in just the second episode and Hodor's tragic death occurred in the fifth, and after so many years of seeing the villains win this was the one where the heroes started to get their own victories. There were some real moments of fan-service, but they were mostly earned now that it was in its sixth season.

After breaking them down so much in Season 5, this was also the year that the women really came to the fore and took back control, which was certainly to the show's strength, and it started paying off years - and in the case of the Tower of Joy, decades - of storytelling, foreshadowing, and character building.

It did have some considerable downsides too, with a few of the subplots not working at all. Arya's time in Braavos was an absolute chore, and while it led her to that fist-pumping murder of Walder Frey, the time spent there still felt like a waste of the character. Sam's storyline, too, was a whole lot of nothing, Dorne was mercifully ignored (but still managed to be quite bad), and Tyrion was pushed to the side.

For the most part, though, it was all quite exciting; everything started coming together, and the show gave us a whopping three episodes that deserve to be ranked inside the Top 10: The Winds of Winter, Battle of the Bastards, and The Door.

Best Episode: The Winds Of Winter

Worst Episode: The Red Woman