By KOH HUI THENG

THERE'S a lot that TV can teach you about the workplace these days.

From The Office, which chronicles the daily grind in a boring stationery company, to the much girlier Ugly Betty, which explores the fashion industry's ins and outs, those series are revealing more about what it means to be in today's corporations.

This week, three new shows offer more lessons on the topic.

Telly Buddy gives you the analysis.

THE IT CROWD

StarHub Ch 18

Mondays, 9.40pm

Resume: The team behind quirky British sitcoms Father Ted and The Office brings you another screwball series about the socially inept and maladjusted.

This is a workplace sitcom about an IT support team's trials and tribulations as they troubleshoot from the the bowels of a dirty, dingy basement office.

Character reference: The very PC-illiterate but pretty relationship manager Jen (Katherine Parkinson) must use all her smarts to try to turn slacker- geekazoids Roy (Chris O'Dowd) and Maurice (Richard Ayoade) into average working Joes in this series, which premiered last week.

No mean task when her underlings are short on cooperation and motivation.

The verdict: Hired at Scale B. Like The Office, you feel like you know these people and their problems, and can't help but like them. The lesson here is no matter what your working style is, make sure you are personable.

PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR

Nickelodeon (StarHub Ch 32)

Mondays to Fridays, 7pm

Resume: Four psychotic penguins - Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private - stole the limelight with their zany antics in the Madagascar movies. Now, the team, styling themselves after undercover commandos, are back with their own show, which premiered last Friday.

Their job is to solve the problems that afflict New York Central Zoo's winged and wingless denizens.

Character reference: There's one big lesson here: Comedy can lighten you up at home, and at work.

Children will laugh during each 23-minute episode of snappy graphics and absurd plots that crank up the laugh factor. Even adults will love the snappy lines from the main characters.

Ammunitions expert Rico (voiced by Joe DiMaggio) helps his friends during a mission to recover their food supply, and regurgitates some popcorn.

"Ah, regurgitated popcorn, just like Mama used to make," he quips. And, like true friends, the rest happily dig in. It reminds us that at work, a little comedy can make things bearable.

The verdict: Hired at Scale A. Everyone needs a few birds like these in their workplace.

ANGEL

Channel 5

Saturday, 10pm

Resume: This home-grown Father's Day telemovie helps to toast dads as we follow the story of ne'er-do-well son Jason (Nat Ho), who is more interested in what his friends are doing than following his dad's (Patrick Teoh) advice about getting a job.

Character reference: Jason is fresh out of prison, which makes his spats with daddy dearest even more biting. Jason's opinion about his father's salaried life may resonate.

"Twenty-seven years in a stupid job and you're still struggling to survive," he snipes.

But an amnesiac Indian man, Henry (R. Chandran), teaches the hotheaded Jason about the importance of family by saying: "The most precious things in life come for free. That's why sometimes you don't know its worth." Cue the hanky.

The verdict: On probation. It's predictable fare to celebrate the father-son bond, but you might learn a thing or two about why your own dad did what he did to get by, and you might glean something about your own attitude towards work.

myp@sph.com.sg

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