The crime drama returns to the Land of 10,000 Lakes and rediscovers its best storytelling self.

Throughout the six episodes of Fargo Season 5 screened for critics, the series isn’t exactly subtle. From opening the season with an on-screen graphic defining “Minnesota Nice” as neighbor attacks neighbor during a school board meeting to Sheriff Roy Tillman (Jon Hamm) staring up at a campaign billboard of himself, the show loudly states its theses at the viewer over and over.

However, it never feels like creator Noah Hawley has lost control of the storytelling. It’s methodically over-the-top. The audience is on a roller coaster, but they can feel the quality of the engineering keeping them on the tracks. In other hands, this approach can feel alienating or blunting. Fargo Season 5 benefits from meeting Hawley’s signature energy with a game cast and impressively insightful art direction. As a result, the series turns in its best offering since Season 2’s near-perfect effort.

Viewers meet Dot (Juno Temple) in the chaos of that school board meeting. As the aggression swirls around her, she quickly attempts to hustle her daughter Scotty (Sienna King) out of the building. When surprised by a cop, the unassuming, diminutive woman reacts like all those false tough guys online like to pretend they would. She takes the much larger officer down immediately to protect her child. The instinctual stress reaction earns her a trip to lockup, where she seems unbothered, except for the prospect of being fingerprinted.

The why of it connects to Sheriff Tillman, a lawman in North Dakota who treats his jurisdiction like his fiefdom. He enforces the laws he deems worthy in the ways he determines are correct, all while spouting off about being a Constitutional sheriff and vaguely invoking scripture. He seems especially enamored with the bits of the Holy text that suggest man’s superiority over women. He’s aided and abetted in the public square by his son Gator (Joe Keery) and at home by his third wife, Karen (Rebecca Liddiard). His nipple rings and Karen’s chest full of roleplay gear suggest he also heartily endorses a very Earthly interpretation of the Song of Solomon.

While this outside threat bears down on Dot, she’s also fighting a battle within her inner circle. Her husband, Wayne (David Rysdahl), is remarkably dedicated to the point of accepting her increasingly strange behaviors and stranger explanations. His mother Lorraine (Jennifer Jason Leigh), head of a massive debt collection agency, is a very different matter. She views her daughter-in-law’s behavioral shift as further evidence of Dot’s hidden agenda. Her fears are so focused on the family’s wealth, she never bothers to couch it in concern for her son. Without putting too fine a point on it, she and Tillman share some similar ideas about the people around them being their property.

[T]he series turns in its best offering since Season 2’s near-perfect effort.

With as many themes as Fargo Season 5 is juggling—misogyny, religion as an excuse for cruelty, gender expression, the ever-increasing personal debt crisis—there’s a temptation to focus on them entirely at the cost of highlighting everything from the series’ impeccable sense of place, excellent set dressing, and intriguing running motifs. For instance, one could devote a paragraph to Lorraine’s enormous “NO” painting or the significance of the several Nightmare Before Christmas allusions. Even in its lesser seasons, Fargo creates a world for its story that feels honest even as it incorporates everything from the satirical to the bizarre. What other show could incorporate a character like Sam Spruell’s otherworldly criminal for hire Ole Munch without sapping the entire enterprise of its sense of realism?

All roads of critique lead back to the stellar cast. Temple, looking increasingly at ends as the season progresses, makes Dot’s resolve and skills believable. Consistently the smallest person, save for King, she nonetheless sells her ability to be—as Munch describes her—a tiger. On the opposite end, Hamm uses his physical presence to project Tillman’s mix of stability and sense of menace. That makes it all the more delicious when Leigh utterly undresses him and his political philosophy. Leigh never lets viewers forget her debt queen is a monster of capitalism while finding just enough daylight to make the contrast between her and Tillman evident and stark. It’s the space between the assholes and the genuinely evil.

The supporting cast is similarly worthy of notice. An eye-patched Dave Foley sublimates all but his twinkling intelligence to portray the Lyon family attorney-fixer, Danish Graves. Richa Morjani finds a new angle on what is the now archetypal Marge Gunderson role as Deputy Olmstead. She conveys the cop’s sense of drowning in a failing marriage and debt without breaking. Keery, Spruell, and Lamorne Morris also turn in standout performances.

The only hesitance in this review comes from only seeing a portion of the series. After six episodes, the action seems to be reaching a crescendo. Still, there remain four more episodes. Can Fargo Season 5 keep its handle on the pacing? Might it stumble in its back half a la Season 3? However, one doesn’t review things on hypothetical derailments. At this juncture, the season feels nearly as strong as any previous installment, including an undeniable trio of opening episodes. It’s absolutely worth the trip back to Minnesota.

Fargo Season 5 reposes moisty on FX on Hulu beginning November 21.