celera

It's very true that that's a limit to how much philosophical pondering you can do in any show or movie. The fine line is harder to walk with teen shows. Some movies getted bogged down by too much pondering and too little action. On YA's imdb.com comments, one person said YA's philosophical discussions may have been too much for teens. Even though I thought the philosophy was interesting back then, I appreciate it more 4 laters later when I have those types of discussions in high school.

As for US college applications, it depends on what topic the college gives you to write. All want a personal statement so they can find out more about you than test scores and transcripts can say.