BY DAVID KRONKE >TV CRITIC

When "Life on Mars" debuted in America last year, its premise was fresh and strange: Detective Sam Tyler (John Simm) is hit by a car in the present day, but wakes up in 1973. He's not sure if he's gone crazy or if he's hearing communications from friends and co-workers while in a coma, but he's still a good cop - in a world filled with bad ones.

The Manchester Police force is filled with whiskey-guzzling tough guys who solve crimes the old-fashioned way: By beating up enough people until they find the perps they're after. His boss, Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister), is an amusingly unhinged detective who likes busting heads as much as solving crimes, maybe a little better.

Meanwhile, Sam has to find his way back to the present, although he really has no idea about how to manage that.

Season two of "Life on Mars" opens, essentially, in wheel-spinning mode, narrative-wise. A few echoes of Sam's life in the present wend their way back to 1973, but really, the first two episodes are much like the middle episodes of season one: Standard cop drama circa the '70s, when the macho swagger of "Starsky and Hutch" dictated that police shoot first and drive as recklessly as possible.

Tonight's premiere offers two episodes back-to-back: First, while investigating a murder, Sam encounters a corrupt casino owner who, years later, will murder his wife.

Next, he meets the man who served as his mentor as a rookie cop while they investigate a messy turf war between rival gangs, and the squad learns that mentoring can be a messy business.

In all, not the sort of quick, ingenious start that "Life on Mars" got off to last year, but we are promised that all will be resolved by the season finale, so it should be worth hanging in there.

David Kronke, (818) 713-3638 david.kronke@dailynews.com

LIFE ON MARS

>What: Season-two premiere of the crime drama about a contemporary detective stranded in the year 1973.
>Where: BBC America.
>When: 8 pm Tuesday
>In a nutshell: Pretty typical cop fare. The payoff/explanation had better be worth it.