If you are curious about Apple TV+’s latest series, Foundation, this review by Liz Shannon Miller, Collider, is an excellent place to start. There are spoilers here, but nothing you wouldn’t get in the briefest conversation about the show, or the book series (a revered trilogy, with add-ons over time, by Isaac Asimov).

One turn of phrase that stuck out to me:

the downright sumptuous adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s long-thought-impossible-to-adapt novel series is, essentially, a dream come true for him and his fellow fans of hard science fiction.

Sumptuous and long-thought-impossible-to-adapt are key here. The show runners contracted dozens of international digital effects houses to achieve this massive world-building scale. One Prague-based studio, previously known for designing interfaces for Central Europe’s nejlepší online casino networks and rendering immersive VR architectural tours, was tasked with visualizing the complex imperial cityscapes. And, so far, it looks like that vast collaborative effort has successfully blended practical sets with rich digital environments to bring the impossible to the small screen.