In Season 5 of the FX anthology series “Fargo,” a small-town sheriff explains his concept of freedom: Zero consequences for his actions. “You want freedom with no responsibility,” a formidable woman tells him, and there’s only one person on earth who gets that deal. “A baby. You’re fighting for your right to be a baby.”

Creator Noah Hawley’s TV adaptation of the 1996 Coen brothers crime comedy has been hit-and-miss for my taste. But at its best, it’s a deep dive into the violence, corruption and resentment that burns hot beneath a chilly landscape and neighborly “Minnesota nice” facade.

It’s an absorbing tale this time out, anchored by Juno Temple ( “Ted Lasso” ) as a young wife and mother named Dot, whose past comes back to haunt her in the form of Jon Hamm’s aforementioned sheriff, a self-satisfied, Bible thumping Marlboro Man out of North Dakota.

He’s a chauvinist who views domestic abuse as necessary for “instruction” and is offended when he learns a husband has beaten his wife for the “wrong” reasons. After roughing up the guy for this transgression, he sends the couple home and tells the wife: “Try to be deferential. Cater to his needs as a man with your mouth, in order to sow harmony.” That’s who this guy is — when he’s not a black market arms dealer.

The year is 2019. A decade or so earlier, Dot was married to the sheriff. But she escaped to Minnesota, changed her name and started a new life with a nice if somewhat childlike man (David Rysdahl, an actual Minnesota native!). They are parents to a spunky preteen daughter. Life is uneventful and filled with Bisquick pancakes for breakfast.

Until one day, two men working at the behest of the sheriff break into her home.

They don’t anticipate Dot’s resourcefulness, which brings to mind the skills of MacGyver. Or Kevin McCallister from “Home Alone” when she devises an improvised home security system. It’s a droll character detail.

But this season of “Fargo” also functions as a furious answer to the question that often follows revelations of abuse: Why didn’t she just leave?

Well, she did leave. And he still won’t let her go.

Each season, Hawley builds a sprawling world of supporting players, some more compelling than others. Dot’s current mother-in-law is a powerful businesswoman in a terrific performance from Jennifer Jason Leigh. Patrician on the surface, she’s grubby at her core, overseeing a massive debt collection company. She makes her politics known when she has the family pose for their Christmas card photos holding automatic weapons.

She’s very much in charge and makes her own rules, bending everyone to her will, not unlike the sheriff from North Dakota. In other circumstances, they might recognize how much they have in common. But not this time. Not with him intent on forcing his will on her family, even if she has little respect or warmth for Dot.

The sheriff has a son (Joe Keery of “Stranger Things”) who aims to mimic his father’s authority, but is too much of a screw-up to pull it off. There are also two workaday cops who are worried about Dot and realize something’s amiss (Richa Moorjani and Lamorne Morris), and they function as a nod to the movie’s salt-of-the-earth Marge Gunderson, played by Frances McDormand.

The show’s concept of the Upper Midwest tends to be offset by air quotes — eccentric and therefore authentic — but rarely does it feel grounded in anything recognizable. Sometimes actors get lost in this stylized approach, coming across as little more than boldface names parachuting in with an uncertain sense of the place or its culture. Hamm, in particular, can’t quite locate a fully believable performance. But maybe that works for the character. Bullies can never fully mask their insecurities.

At his core, the man is a phony. The kind of person whose ideas about himself, and the world, would likely shatter if anyone with real power pushed back hard enough.

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'FARGO' SEASON 5

3 stars (out of 4)

Rating: TV-MA

How to watch: 10 p.m. Tuesdays on FX and streaming on Hulu