Because anything can happen? 
I dunno, seems like a draw from my cheap seat. But we’ll see - I’m still reserving judgement myself. But I’m not hating it. Yet.
In addition, the opening credits of episode 1 were very reminiscent of the Dick Van Dyke Show, while episode 2’s animated credits looked a lot like Bewitched. Episode 2 had a decidedly Bewitched-like plot as well, with Vision/Darren messing up his magic act, and Wanda/Samantha using her “magic” to get him out of his scrape. It’s really more early-60s/late-60s than anything from the 50s.
Regardless of her age, I agree that Wanda’s backstory–growing up in a war-torn central European country–wouldn’t give her nostalgic memories of American sitcom reruns. So it seems more likely that some outside influence is the source of this material. Per the end credits, there definitely seems to be someone watching all of this, and that person may be imposing this on Wanda as well.
As to the whole “But the Vision is dead!” debate, my answer is: this is comics. In the entire history of the genre, NO ONE has stayed dead. As Rick Jones once said, “Three out of three people surveyed have died and come back to life.” We might as well watch a musical and wonder why all those people keep singing.
You know what else is a lot like those shows? Those shows are. You can find them on Nick at Night and MeTV and streaming channels all over the place. What does any of this have to do with Wanda and/or the Vision? If you know then you learned it somewhere else, not from watching this show. It was obvious in the first 10 minutes (maybe 2 minutes really) that Wanda and/or the Vision were living in an imaginary sitcom land. Everything after that has been repeating that one tidbit of info except those few points where the story is clearly incomplete. The plot not should be up to the midpoint of the first episode right now, not lingering on unchanged after two full episodes.
I’m liking it, and still see the no in universe rules that matter as a negative.
A standard trope is that American sitcom reruns have a long extended life outside of the U.S.
“Anything Can Happen Day” was The Mouskeketeers.
Wait, that was Disney, too!
I think you’re on to something.
If you don’t find the sitcom parts enjoyable on their own, then I can definitely see how the pace of the show would be annoying. In terms of the overarching MCU plot, there’s been essentially nothing - just “something weird is happening to them” and that’s it. Now I’ve been enjoying the sitcom stuff and the little moments of strangeness, but it certainly seems like there are a number of people who don’t find it interesting at all.
I posted above that I think the focus of the show will gradually shift as the episodes pass, and I hope that’s the case. I think part of the reason the strange moments work is that they’re a contrast to the “normal” sitcom stuff, and it’s necessary to establish that normal stuff for the contrast to work. But now that the setup has happened, it’s not useful to re-do it every episode, so I think the sitcoms will take more of a back seat as the show progresses.
Ya’ll are making me feel old - all this talk of re-runs and stuff, when I watched those sit-coms on their first run! (well, tail end of The Dick Van Dyke Show - I’m not quite as old as dirt…)
Your expectation is that the show should do things how you want them. You seem to want everything explained to you immediately. Though this show is broken up episodically, it’s one long story. Answers don’t come at the start, they come at the end. Give them the benefit of the doubt that the writers have a plan.
There’s a song (can’t remember what) on the radio that time stamps the episode at 1965 or later. That’s the same year many sitcoms switched to color.
Why should I do that? Storytelling requires a story, not one long drawn out “Once…upon…a…time…”, and then followed by the same thing.
No reason why you have to, but this is a mini-series, so you might enjoy the full 9 episode miniseries. I love Pleasantville, so, so far this series is working for me. It might not for you.
The way I understand it, the series is broken up into acts. Act 1 (episodes 1-3) sets the storyin motion, Act 2 will propel the story, and Act 3 will resolve the story.
Standard miniseries slow burn.
“Help Me Rhonda” played on the radio when she was cleaning up after the committee meeting.
I’m not sure what to make of the “commercials” or what information they’re trying to leak through to whom.
…I mean, the episodes are only about 22 minutes long. How much “story” were you expecting?
Its okay that you don’t like it. Not every story works for everyone. But shows like Babylon 5 wouldn’t have worked nearly as well as it did if the first season and a half weren’t structured as the opening section of a novel. There obviously is a story here. Its just not clicking with you and that’s just fine. But there is nothing inherently wrong with the way they’ve chosen to tell the story: it is a risky choice because it obviously alienates viewers like you. But not everyone is like you.
Regarding some of the spoilers and names that have popped up so far in this thread: I didn’t mention them in my original post because it became apparent that most people in the thread hadn’t didn’t know about any of it. But the cast notes and the trailers give huge amounts of spoiler information away. So thanks to the people who used the spoiler tags on some of that info 
Hollywood needs to prove that to me even once before I trust them. Twin Peaks, Lost, X-files, Push Nevada, Strangeluck, Nowhere Man, John Doe…
Though WV being only 9 episodes does give a good indication that there is a plan.
There is not an obvious story here. There probably is a story here and I’ll watch enough to find out if there is. It’s just a TV show, and there isn’t much new to look at anyway. But the necessary story points have to be included in the story or it’s just another Little Orphan Annie decoder pin. I didn’t pay good money to make this the last choice on a discount streaming combination package to have to get the CliffsNotes to find out what the story is about.
The first one was for a Stark product, the second for a von Strucker. So they seem to be referring to her past traumas.
And the first one had a slogan of “Forget the past, this is your future” which seems rather pointed.
And the second one was “he’ll make time for you” which is also rather ominous.
A good theory I saw on Reddit (spoiling speculation):
The two actors are Wanda’s dead parents.