I guess Community? Though that is clearly comedic.

Your distinctions between what is good meta and what is bad meta seems very personal and subjective though.

I was talking about that the other day with someone. I rewatched the first season and a half or so, and I was really enjoying it. Not a lot of torture going on, though certainly it appears. And to my memory, the latter couple of seasons were actively addressing in the show the dangerous issues with Jack's recklessness. I recall a terrific speech from Kurtwood Smith, who was initially portrayed as some anti-Bauer bureaucrat but actually was handed some powerful things to say against torture.

So was it just seasons 3-6 where Jack is a vicious torture bot? Weird how memory is. I have too many other shows on my plate to dig into this solely to see the amount of torturing he does. Though I do recall he kills something like 200+ people over the 8 days of the show, which is quite a rate...

Eh, those aren't a chain of spin-offs though, like the OP was asking about.

It's a stretch (and I mean a real stretch), but Batman the Animated Series to Justice League to Justice League Unlimited?

Very much looking forward to watching these, especially as a fan of Lovecraftian horror.

Can anyone speak to the level of gore and body horror within? I'm assuming it's pretty significant.