With “Succession” set to kick off its final season tomorrow night and the long-awaited premiere of “Yellowjackets” Season 2 now streaming, TV weekends just don’t get much bigger than this. As we enter the final stretch of the Emmy eligibility period, the biggest players in streaming and cable are working to ensure that their top shows are released in time to leave a mark with voters. For some long-running hits, entering the spring as an Emmy frontrunner is an annual inevitability. But in the age of Peak TV, it can be a surreal experience when a show becomes an awards darling after seemingly emerging out of nowhere.

“Yellowjackets” is firmly in the latter category. Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson’s uncategorizable Showtime thriller — which deals with the aftermath of a plane crash that forces a women’s soccer team to spend 19 months surviving in the wilderness — took the world by...