Michael Keaton’s comeback complete with ‘Dopesick’

In 1988, Tom Hanks captured Hollywood’s attention with standout performances in “Big” and “Punchline.”

It was also a huge year for Michael Keaton. Like Hanks, the actor was previously called upon for lighthearted comedies like “Mr. Mom” and “Night Shift.” But while Hanks was channeling a 13year-old boy, Keaton was playing a wisecracking demon in “Beetlejuice” and a self-centered alcoholic in “Clean and Sober.” He would put on the Batman costume the following year.

Both actors wowed in the ’80s, but Hanks would go on to become a national treasure, and Keaton slipped off the radar.

Now he’s all the way back. “Dopesick,” an eight-part series that starts streaming Wednesday on Hulu, is just the latest chapter in one of the most satisfying second acts in Hollywood history.

Keaton, who also serves as an executive producer, plays Samuel Finnix, an Appalachian doctor with the bedside manner of Marcus Welby. But his judgment flies out the window when he starts prescribing OxyContin to patients — and eventually gets hooked on the drug himself.

Finnix’s downfall is one of many compelling stories in this miniseries, created by Danny Strong (“Empire”) and featuring one great performance after another. Kaitlyn Dever’s turn as a fellow addict is heartbreaking. Rosario Dawson is so fierce as a DEA agent you’ll wonder why she hasn’t been invited to join the Avengers.

But it’s Keaton who draws you in the most. Early in his career, he relied so much on smirks and cockiness that he was already spoofing himself in 1984’s “Johnny Dangerously.”

This time, there are no tricks. Finnix is too beaten down to turn on the charm. In a scene at a rehab center, he meets with the pharmaceutical dealer who first introduced him to the opioid. Instead of

reading the young salesman the riot act, the disgraced doc begs him to sneak in some pills.

He’s about as far as you can get from the caped crusader, a costume Keaton will slip back into for “The Flash,” scheduled for release next year.