Everybody Loves Raymond ran for nine seasons inspiring endless flashbacks of family dysfunction for millions of stateside viewers. At it's best (which was almost all the time) the show evoked belly laughs. At it's very best it was so real the humor was painful. Surely such universal themes and characters could be made into successful foreign spinoff shows. That's the premise of this very funny, highly insightful documentary by Everybody Loves Raymond creator Phil Rosenthal.
Rosenthal is asked by the Russians to adapt his show for their airwaves and the result shows Rosenthal entering in with high hopes only to enter a creative nightmare in which Russian and American TV culture hit head on. His own doubts about the universality of his show and comedy not withstanding one thing is for sure, studio politics are the same wherever you go.
The extras are truly awesome. You get an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond and the same episode adapted for Everybody Loves Kostya. The feature has a Phil Rosenthal commentary, deleted scenes and a theatrical trailer.