Matea Gold in the LAT makes the rounds before the Emmys this Sunday to see what HBO needs to do in a post-Albrecht, post-”Sopranos” world. (The show has 15 nominations for its last season, including its delectable finale; Chris Albrecht was the network’s talented capo, who flamed out in the spring after hitting his girlfriend in a Las Vegas parking lot.)

The fix the network is in is good for us viewers; HBO is taking a seeing-what-sticks approach, and trying everything from absurdist sit-coms like “Flight of the Conchords” to joyless sexfests like “Tell Me You Love Me.” There’s more to come, says Gold:

That’s not to say that HBO doesn’t have high expectations for the trio of new programs it picked up for next year: “12 Miles of Bad Road,” an hourlong dramedy by “Designing Women” creator Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, with Lily Tomlin as a Dallas real estate magnate; vampire drama “True Blood,” executive produced by “Six Feet Under’s” Alan Ball; and “In Treatment,” executive producer Mark Wahlberg’s adaptation of an Israeli series about a therapist, played by Gabriel Byrne, struggling with his own demons.

Next spring will also mark the arrival of “John Adams,” a $100-million miniseries based on David McCullough’s biography, starring Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney. Simon — whose gritty urban drama “The Wire” will return in January for its final season — is also producing “Generation Kill,” a miniseries for next fall about a group of Marines who participated in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Fan favorites “Big Love” and “Entourage,” as well as the quirky cult hit “Flight of the Conchords,” will return midyear.

And further down the road:

To ensure a steady pool of creative talent, [HBO execs] have sought out people in the industry who didn’t have previous relationships with the network, urging them to bring their ideas to HBO. Strauss is developing a new project with Milch and is working with Martin Scorsese on a series about the development of Atlantic City. And HBO Films is overseeing nearly half a billion dollars’ worth of productions around the world, including “The Pacific,” a $200-million World War II miniseries from executive producers Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, set to air in 2009 as the companion piece to “Band of Brothers.”

The story closes with this optimistic quote…

“We’ve never had a bigger and more aggressive slate than we have at the moment,” said Colin Callender, president of HBO Films. “The important thing here at HBO is that we continue to take risks and that talent feels it’s a place where they can take risks with us. I think in that sense, we all shared a clear creative vision.”

… but I think obscures one key issue. Even if you take HBO’s public mantra of its charter at face value–the one that says it has a sophisticated audience, which wants the network to program adventurously and will allow it to fail occasionally–the reality of its dizzying profit margins is slightly different. Those were helped along mightily by DVD sales, led by “Sex and the City,” “Six Feet Under” and of course “The Sopranos.” That’s many many millions of sets sold at $40, $50, $60 and more. That all adds up, as did the syndication sales of the shows to basic cable–$2.5 million per episode of “The Sopranos” alone. What those figures have in common is that they were all free money. HBO doesn’t need a critical hit. It needs another cash cow–or two or three.