'We live in "Tiger King" America now': Noah Hawley on the return of 'Fargo'

[This article contains spoilers from the first two episodes of "Fargo," Season 5.]

Just before working on the new season of "Fargo," Noah Hawley — the showrunner who adapted the Coen brothers' unforgettable dark comedy film into one of TV's most striking anthology series — did something he had never done before: He went back and watched all four seasons of the show.

"What was great in watching those first four seasons was that I was far enough away that I didn't even really remember what the fears were in the moment when it was still a working document," Hawley says. "I reminded myself, most importantly, they're all so different and that this one should be as well."

The series returned to FX on Tuesday after a three-year hiatus. And while "Fargo" again resets from previous seasons with a new timeline and characters, this installment is more closely aligned with the eccentric and beloved 1996 film from Joel and Ethan Coen about a bungled kidnapping and extortion attempt.

Premiering with two episodes directed by Hawley, the fifth season takes place in 2019 and stars Juno Temple as Dorothy "Dot" Lyon, a seemingly typical Midwestern wife and mom who is kidnapped and suddenly thrust back into the secret life she thought she had left behind. The people searching for her include North Dakota sheriff and ex-husband Roy Tillman (Jon Hamm), her mysterious kidnapper named Ole Munch (Sam Spruell) and deputies Witt Farr (Lamorne Morris) and Indira Olmstead (Richa Moorjani), who are working the case.

The story opens with Dot getting arrested during the chaos of a school board meeting that's devolved into an all-out battle.

"In telling the most