Animated series, two seasons (technically there was a short third season, but almost no one including series creator Greg Weisman counts it as canonical). Available on Disney+.
This was a Disney animated series that originally ran in the same block with Darkwing Duck, but it looks and flows like something completely different. The roots of the drama are grounded in 10th and 11th century Scotland, and the first half of the series spends a fair amount of time showing us those roots, but the main action occurs in a 1990s Manhattan that's just a bit ahead of its time (mostly standard comics-grade high tech).
It's very much an ensemble affair. Our heroes are five living gargoyles (stone by day, patrolling the skies by night) led by Goliath, plus police detective Elisa Maza. There are two lead adversaries: Demona, a renegade gargoyle, and billionaire David Xanatos - and I say adversaries deliberately, because neither character is a one-note villain. Both are fascinating, complicated characters who are drawn with impressive nuance as the series develops. This core cast is augmented by a sizeable supporting ensemble as the show evolves, most notably Macbeth (yes, literally the one from Shakespeare), Thailog (an illicit clone of Goliath, who's arguably more dangerous than Xanatos and Demona combined), and a host of faerie folk right up to Oberon and Titania.
That description sounds like a recipe for a train wreck, but trust me: the writing is focused and carefully structured throughout. So besides being an action/adventure show that's stylistically not far off of the original Timmvere Batman, it's also a Scottish history primer (yes, really!), a family drama (some of Elisa's relatives are drawn in; Xanatos gets married!, younger gargoyles turn up), and a literal world tour of comparative mythology, with bonus Arthurian bits. Also, the voice cast is stellar, with several main characters and secondary roles played by alumni of Star Trek:TNG.
I'd say that the series hits almost all of your "general likes" buttons, particularly those for nuanced female characters whether heroic or otherwise. The one thing it's a little short on is femslash potential - there are some prospects among the secondary players, and maybe Fox (you'll see), but not many.
One storyline, involving "mutates", might bump up against your triggers/DNWs; the premise is that an evil scientist is injecting humans with animal DNA to create hybrids (i.e. noncon; the subjects are not consulted beforehand). A female character in the relevant episode is especially traumatized, reacting in a way that might indicate prior abuse. This is dealt with in the course of the arc (about two episodes, very early in Season 2), and thereafter, the mutates appear chiefly as background players.
Webcomic, created by Shaenon Garrity; 2000-2006 (complete).
Take one mad scientist, one evil intern, one newly hired computer geek, one super-intelligent gerbil, and the scientist's "mother". Add high explosives, a forensic linguist, several rival mad scientists, the Legion of Daves, a visiting demon, and assorted mutated animals of various species and sizes. Mix well; publish four panels a day (more on Sunday) for six years.
That's Narbonic in a nutshell. Our heroine is Dr. Helen B. (for Beta) Narbon, head of Narbonics Labs. Mell (for Melody Wildflower) Kelly, Helen B's intern, is just out of college, cute as heck, and really enjoys weapons of massive destruction. Dave Davenport either chain-smokes or doesn't (depending on whether the time travel arc has happened yet) and serves as perpetual guinea pig for a great variety of experiments. Artie is the gerbil, given super-intellect by Helen in an early experiment - unlike the rest of the cast, he's (a) sane, and (b) explicitly not evil. (No one is entirely sure why he continues to live in the lab; possibly he's trying to head off assorted schemes for world domination.)
Six days a week, this is an old-school newspaper-style panel comic strip - like Peanuts in its heyday, sometimes doing single-panel comedy but often featuring ongoing storylines. Essentially, on one level it's a pure workplace sitcom much like many of those on your "list of things I've watched", except that it happens in an Evil Mad Science Lab™.
At the same time (and especially on Sundays) there are genuine character arcs unfolding under the surface, slowly circling upward as the run of the comic moves forward. But unlike, say, the writers of Castle (don't get me started), Garrity knows exactly what she's doing at every step, and anything that may look like a random digression is almost certain to pay off eventually.
What makes all this stand out from every other mad scientist riff in the multiverse is that above all, the strip is funny, and while it takes its characters seriously, it never loses sight of the idea that mad science should be FUN. Even when there's angst in one of the story arcs, it's angst with a sense of FUN lurking underneath it. You wouldn't want an actual Helen Narbon in your living room, because the eventual cleanup would be epic. But reading Helen's adventures is one of the most reliable smile-generators I know of on the 'Net.
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Two suggestions:
Gargoyles
Animated series, two seasons (technically there was a short third season, but almost no one including series creator Greg Weisman counts it as canonical). Available on Disney+.
This was a Disney animated series that originally ran in the same block with Darkwing Duck, but it looks and flows like something completely different. The roots of the drama are grounded in 10th and 11th century Scotland, and the first half of the series spends a fair amount of time showing us those roots, but the main action occurs in a 1990s Manhattan that's just a bit ahead of its time (mostly standard comics-grade high tech).
It's very much an ensemble affair. Our heroes are five living gargoyles (stone by day, patrolling the skies by night) led by Goliath, plus police detective Elisa Maza. There are two lead adversaries: Demona, a renegade gargoyle, and billionaire David Xanatos - and I say adversaries deliberately, because neither character is a one-note villain. Both are fascinating, complicated characters who are drawn with impressive nuance as the series develops. This core cast is augmented by a sizeable supporting ensemble as the show evolves, most notably Macbeth (yes, literally the one from Shakespeare), Thailog (an illicit clone of Goliath, who's arguably more dangerous than Xanatos and Demona combined), and a host of faerie folk right up to Oberon and Titania.
That description sounds like a recipe for a train wreck, but trust me: the writing is focused and carefully structured throughout. So besides being an action/adventure show that's stylistically not far off of the original Timmvere Batman, it's also a Scottish history primer (yes, really!), a family drama (some of Elisa's relatives are drawn in; Xanatos gets married!, younger gargoyles turn up), and a literal world tour of comparative mythology, with bonus Arthurian bits. Also, the voice cast is stellar, with several main characters and secondary roles played by alumni of Star Trek:TNG.
I'd say that the series hits almost all of your "general likes" buttons, particularly those for nuanced female characters whether heroic or otherwise. The one thing it's a little short on is femslash potential - there are some prospects among the secondary players, and maybe Fox (you'll see), but not many.
One storyline, involving "mutates", might bump up against your triggers/DNWs; the premise is that an evil scientist is injecting humans with animal DNA to create hybrids (i.e. noncon; the subjects are not consulted beforehand). A female character in the relevant episode is especially traumatized, reacting in a way that might indicate prior abuse. This is dealt with in the course of the arc (about two episodes, very early in Season 2), and thereafter, the mutates appear chiefly as background players.
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Narbonic
Webcomic, created by Shaenon Garrity; 2000-2006 (complete).
Take one mad scientist, one evil intern, one newly hired computer geek, one super-intelligent gerbil, and the scientist's "mother". Add high explosives, a forensic linguist, several rival mad scientists, the Legion of Daves, a visiting demon, and assorted mutated animals of various species and sizes. Mix well; publish four panels a day (more on Sunday) for six years.
That's Narbonic in a nutshell. Our heroine is Dr. Helen B. (for Beta) Narbon, head of Narbonics Labs. Mell (for Melody Wildflower) Kelly, Helen B's intern, is just out of college, cute as heck, and really enjoys weapons of massive destruction. Dave Davenport either chain-smokes or doesn't (depending on whether the time travel arc has happened yet) and serves as perpetual guinea pig for a great variety of experiments. Artie is the gerbil, given super-intellect by Helen in an early experiment - unlike the rest of the cast, he's (a) sane, and (b) explicitly not evil. (No one is entirely sure why he continues to live in the lab; possibly he's trying to head off assorted schemes for world domination.)
Six days a week, this is an old-school newspaper-style panel comic strip - like Peanuts in its heyday, sometimes doing single-panel comedy but often featuring ongoing storylines. Essentially, on one level it's a pure workplace sitcom much like many of those on your "list of things I've watched", except that it happens in an Evil Mad Science Lab™.
At the same time (and especially on Sundays) there are genuine character arcs unfolding under the surface, slowly circling upward as the run of the comic moves forward. But unlike, say, the writers of Castle (don't get me started), Garrity knows exactly what she's doing at every step, and anything that may look like a random digression is almost certain to pay off eventually.
What makes all this stand out from every other mad scientist riff in the multiverse is that above all, the strip is funny, and while it takes its characters seriously, it never loses sight of the idea that mad science should be FUN. Even when there's angst in one of the story arcs, it's angst with a sense of FUN lurking underneath it. You wouldn't want an actual Helen Narbon in your living room, because the eventual cleanup would be epic. But reading Helen's adventures is one of the most reliable smile-generators I know of on the 'Net.