I have a bit of a history of frustration with the critics at the NYT (they probably don't know it, but I called them out enough times on their mistakes on HBO's Vinyl that they actually had to make a correction).

Don't get me wrong, I love the NYT (I was born in NYC and have read the Times for my entire life) but I think they have been fairly sloppy of late with their television criticism.

Anyway, this is intended as an open letter to New York Times television critic Mike Hale for his recent review of the Netflix series "Luke Cage."

Luke Cage Puts Race At The Center of the Story?

I don't know you from Adam Mr. Hale, but I am pretty sure that you have never read many Luke Cage comic books from back in the day.

Why am I so sure? Well, you say the following about the television version of Luke Cage:

"And like another recent Netflix series, “The Get Down,” some of its camerawork and music evoke the blaxploitation era, though, unlike that show, “Luke Cage” is set in the present."

Mr. Hale, for your information, the comic book Luke Cage was "the" superhero for the Blacksploitation era.

He was, basically, a superhero version of Shaft (written by a bunch of white guys at Marvel in order to cash in on the popularity of that style of films).

The camerawork and music evoke the era as a nod to the source material.

Yes, they are bringing him into the present (as they did Daredevil and Jessica Jones) but they are winking at his true origins with those touches.