It wasn't darker, it was just whiny. They basically had teenagers mooning over each other and one of the main characters was literally just there to have sex with all the female characters (including the female lead). Even the adults acted like teenagers. There's a subplot where the cheating male lead has his wife cheat on him with the guy whose body he uses to talk with her back on earth.

The only good thing about the series was Christopher McDonald, and they kill him off in the pilot.