Convincing International locales

50 years ago,on CBS, MISSION : IMPOSSIBLE was shot almost completed at Desilu Hollywood and Desilu Culver City (Including the 40-acres ranch)where they had to make it look like different parts of the world...

...Try watching any of those episodes and believe those were not sets and redressed back-lot! I'm sure there were barely convincing when you had Bond films shooting in the real locations.

However, in the first episode of CM:BB they did a convincing job of making the locals believable - I'd be hard pressed to believe there wasn't much CGI except for the parts that couldn't be created with sets and redressed locations-back lot. Seemed more practical than CGI. Yes, there's always the "look" - the skyline, the daylight,etc - but many shows use thoses.

NCIS has done some convincing international locals last few seasons, and these were on par or better.

As long as they can keep it up, I think the show will continue to be convincing.

However, I'm sure there will be nit-pickers who will pick apart every episode and post here every part that got wrong.