Last Night's Television - Monday Monday, ITV1; The Street, BBC1

ITV1's new recessionary comedy drama, Monday Monday, is set in the head office of a struggling supermarket chain, though it could be the head office of pretty much any struggling business, so generic is the writers' idea of a white-collar workplace. Departments like "marketing" and "human resources" are more or less interchangeable; the only visible staff members are the heads of said departments and their PAs; and the plot of the first episode was hung on such overfamiliar dramatic hooks as an office party and a hazily rationalised PowerPoint presentation.

As we joined the staff of Butterworth's, they'd just completed a move to new offices in Leeds, and we were rarely allowed to forget it. The hour was filled with panoramic shots of the city centre, as if advertising it as an attractive nightlife destination, or to prove beyond doubt that ITV was fulfilling its obligations to the regions. A power struggle was quickly underway between chief executive Roger (Peter Wight) and Alyson (Holly Aird) the ballbreaking new chief operating officer, whose rallying address to her troops was full of yawnsome platitudes.

Perhaps the business-speak was deliberately hackneyed, but Butterworth's is no Wernham Hogg, and after a while the office clichés seemed merely an excuse for the lack of any original dialogue. I chuckled reluctantly at the antics of Neil Stuke as Max ("acting head of marketing") and his PA, Vince (Saikat Ahamed), who would do anything – anything – to get a promotion. But Jenny Agutter, as Roger's PA (who spent most of her scenes sitting quietly in the corner while Alyson and her boss traded veiled insults) was reduced to delivering such gems as: "We all have [BlackBerrys] now, dear. Didn't you get the email?" "Didn't you get the email"?! Yeesh.

The main storyline concerned human resources' ditzy department head, Christine (Fay Ripley), and her long-suffering PA, Sally (Morven Christie), recently left brokenhearted by a cheating ex-fiancé. Christie makes an immensely likeable lead, but the romantic subplot developing between her and the rogueish Steven (Tom Ellis) has been pieced together from old scraps of other on-screen romances.

Meanwhile, it emerged that Christine's wackiness was in fact a result of her crippling alcoholism. Sally's first job each morning was to rouse her boss, invariably sleeping off a hangover in her car, with a large cup of tea. While drunk during the working day, Christine engaged in unfunny slapstick routines with glass doors, overhead projectors and coffee-stained suits. And in the evening, when she was meant to be at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, she was glugging merlot in her hotel room, leaving Sally to go in her stead (which I'm pretty sure is not allowed).

I'd hate to get all PC about it, but surely alcoholism should be more than just a punchline. The Street, over on BBC1, proved as much. This anthology drama about a single street in Manchester is now in its third series, so the concept – each episode a mini morality play focusing on a different resident – ought to be wearing thin by now. But unlike Monday Monday, Jimmy McGovern's script made good use of its enviable cast.

Bob Hoskins was Paddy Gargan, landlord of the Greyhound pub, and a reformed alcoholic. After barring young Callum Miller (Robert Emms) for smoking in the loos, he found himself in a standoff with Callum's dad, Tom (Liam Cunningham), local hard case and suspect businessman, whose interests included a substantial stake in the pub's football team.

As the clock ticked closer to 3.30, the appointed hour at which he would be forced either to serve Miller and his son, or to face the violent consequences, Paddy watched friends and customers desert him like Gary Cooper in High Noon. Unlike Cooper, Paddy was bested in the resulting fight; but he returned to the bar, battered and bruised, to serve his revenge – cold, and with a cocktail umbrella in it.

As well as the more straightforward moral questions facing Paddy – should he swallow his pride to save his business? Could he shield his own son from the fight, while asking other young men to back him up? – the episode also questioned the role of booze and the boozer in the life of the street. While his wife, played by Frances Barber, insisted that the Greyhound was simply a business, Paddy said it was more than that: it was the centre of the community.

When he went to ask the football team for help taking on Miller – who'd funded the side with profits from the drugs trade – Paddy was confronted by coach Bob (Steve Evets, recently excellent in Looking for Eric), who argued that the most dangerous drug of all was the alcohol Paddy served in the Greyhound.

As if to prove the point, the only customer to remain loyally in the pub while Miller assaulted Paddy was the local drunk. His loyalty wasn't to the publican, however, but to the beer he served. This discreet social investigation may not have reached a conclusion as satifying as the story, but it was a darn sight more interesting than watching Fay Ripley walk into doors.