Lots of great Florida location footage, both "commercial" and "natural" (Everglades). It's great to see Sessue Hayakawa in a rare, late career role; the sense of humanity and dignity he projects is very effective, especially in his scenes with the typically honest, "Everyman" performance of Jack Warden.
Unfortunately, the unbalanced script doesn't give them enough screen time together-- a big missed opportunity. The problem is the amount of footage devoted to the unstable, self-pitying wife, who almost dominates the first half of the show, only to disappear completely when we get to the scenes that we're waiting for. So why include her at all? Poor scripting choice. Think of the deepening of the story of the two great actors-- Sessue and Jack Warden-- that might have been, had the author eliminated the wife's scenes. As it is, the distant, WWII encounter of these guys and the way it motivates their 1963 "reunion" is somewhat unconvincing.
I hope and pray that we see LESS of Route 66"s reliance on neurotic, unhinged women in Season 4. The torturous escapades of so many of Season 3's female characters made viewing equally challenging. The appearance of Linc Case significantly reduced the number of "crazy-lady" stories, to my great relief. I hope the trend continues in the final season-- tho' the first show suffered considerably from the alky wife subplot.
Note: Sessue's first lines during the Everglades scene (at 26:26) are dubbed by someone else who can't duplicate the actor's distinctive Japanese accent. Actually, I'm surprised that they didn't dub more (or ALL) of Sessue's dialogue, because you really have to listen closely to follow it. But that's part of the power--and the effectiveness-- of his performance. LR