Lifestyles of the Rich and Russian LONDON - On a recent evening in the exclusive neighborhood of Mayfair, a group of first-generation Russian Londoners gathered at the Arch Hotel to watch Fox U.K."s documentary series, "Meet the Russians." With their Bellini cocktails and Prada bags, these viewers represent a fraction of the 300,000 Russians living in London whose extravagant lives have captured the attention of the British public and become fodder for this show. It completed its first season last week in Britain and will air in 14 countries around Europe and in Africa starting in January. Like the Bravo network's television franchise "Real Housewives," which documents the lives of affluent women in the United States, this show follows the parallel narratives of 15 participants - mostly from Russia, but also from former Soviet countries like Ukraine or Estonia - who are trying to gain entry into London's high society. Between scenes of galas and private-jet shopping, interviews give the participants a chance to reveal some of what lies beneath their opulent lives. They describe the haunting memories of a one-bedroom Moscow flat; the pressure to marry a wealthy foreigner; the nostalgia for Russia; the loneliness of starting a new life with its linguistic and cultural boundaries. To cast the show, Fox's Russian-speaking crew scoured bars, clubs and boutiques in London's Mayfair and Chelsea districts. According to Joanna Ball, the executive producer, they intentionally skipped over the oligarchs who landed in London in the 1990s, opting instead for newly-arrived, ambitious Russians who had yet to fully assimilate into British society. "We may see Russians spend lots of money and think they're spoiled, but then they talk about their childhoods and how their parents had to queue for hours in Soviet Russia," Ms. Ball said during an interview in London. All of these people are real, we're allowing them to tell their stories - we haven't made them up. Few of the participants are as vocal about their pasts as Katia Elizarova, a model born in Saratov, a Russian town known as the place where Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, landed on his descent. In the third episode, Ms. Elizarova exclaimed that for her, "traveling to London was like traveling to the moon." After a decade of climbing the ranks of the modeling industry, Ms. Elizarova, 27, is now settled in a one-bedroom apartment in Chelsea. "We are so absolutely lucky," she said during an interview at Mayfair's Arts Club, of which she is now a member, along with celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow. We are all from post-Soviet countries, and we have similar dreams to be happy. There are so many good things about London - the security, the ambiance, the social life. All of the members of the show came to London because they want to achieve these things. But back in Russia, the show has been heavily criticized for typecasting Russian immigrants as outlandish and repellently rich. "Primoi Efir," which translates as "Live Now," a talk show on the state-run Rossiya 1, recently invited Ms. Elizarova, along with Alina Blinova, a fellow cast member who runs RuStyle, a London-based concierge company, to Moscow to appear in front of a live studio audience. Marinika Smirnova, another cast member, also joined the conversation by video along with Masha Pogrebnyak, a model and aspiring fashion designer, and her husband, Pavel Pogrebnyak, a striker for Reading Football Club. The audience accused the cast members of "discrediting our nation." One person on the panel said, "No respectable person would allow themselves to become the laughing stock of England just for the sake of a show's ratings." The participants responded that their goal in joining the show was to create a positive image for Russians abroad. Part of the show's appeal to a British audience are the "larger-than-life characters who sometimes conform to the stereotypes we see," Ms. Ball said. Suddenly there seem to be a lot more people speaking Russian in London, and on holiday, and we kind of think we know about them. This is a chance for people to actually see what they're like," she said. But Maryna Pogribko, a law firm consultant who was watching the show at the Arch Hotel, said: "I mean this is pretty embarrassing. Obviously, that's not how we act. All of us Russians living here, no matter how much money we have now, if we came from Russia in the "90s, we've have had our share of bad experiences." Whether to extend the program for a second season will be decided after producers conduct viewer research about the show, which is the first that Fox International Channels has commissioned. According to Fox, the season premiere in September had 370,000 viewers and subsequent episodes received around 300,000 viewers each. The show introduces viewers to people, aged 20 to late 50s, in varying stages of their personal and professional lives - but the emphasis is always on excess. The pop singer Kamaliya Zahoor moved to London from Ukraine to break into the European music scene and "force Lady Gaga to retire early," she said in one episode. She is spending thousands of pounds to achieve that goal thanks to her husband, Mohammad Zahoor, a Pakistani steel magnate. They are the only two people featured in every episode of the show. "I quite agree with anyone who says the show conforms to a certain stereotype," said Ms. Blinova, whose concierge business is the focus of the eighth episode. I have a recognizable company here, and we cater to the needs of our wealthy clients. Already I have gotten more clients thanks to the show.