"One With a Bullet" is an episode that clearly will annoy many viewers. This is because the folks who made "Hawaii Five-O" were trying to cash in on the disco craze and the show is permeated with the music. Nowadays, EVERYONE claims to hate disco, so it will annoy. As for me, I actually like some of the music and am an admitted disco fan--so this didn't bother me. But the show DID have too much singing. Plus, if you don't like the music, you have TWO episodes to watch--part one and part two!
The show has an interesting guest star--Yvonne Elliman. Elliman is, to my knowledge, the only Hawaiian disco star in history. Here, however, she doesn't sing he huge hit "If I Can't Have You", though fortunately her acting is pretty good for a non-professional. In addition to Elliman, James Darren, Nehemiah Persoff and Ross Martin star in this show.
The plot involves a jerk-face named Ray Santoro (Antony Ponzini). He's a member of the Kumu--a Hawaiian mob that would soon be involved in many of season 11 and 12's plots. Santoro wants to use his mob's muscle to get a foothold in the local disco business and he even has dreams of becoming a musical producer (in Hawaii?!?!). The problem is that Santoro is greedy AND stupid. First, he kills a guy who turns out to work for the mob on the mainland (oops). Second, when Tony Aliki, the leader of the mob tells Santoro to back off because he doesn't want an all-out war, Santoro doesn't listen--and this is where episode one ends. What's next? Well, if you can stand the music, see episode two and find out for yourself.
While I think that not enough of the show is devoted to McGarrett and Five-O (hence the mediocre score of 6), I did like the little window into the 70s. I remember the era but was too young to be a disco king. Here, I can laugh and smile at the silly hair, costumes and the like.
By the way, one little thing about this show I loved was its continuity. Several episodes earlier ("The Pagoda Factor"), Joey Lee worked with the police to stop the spread of a Chinese gang. Here, he is one of the supporting characters--and he's played by the same actor, Brian Tochi.